Re: What Makes Lard Hard or Soft?

[Guest guest]

> What Makes Lard Hard or Soft?

>

>

>

>Was frying up some tortillas. I was out of lard from my nice wonderful

>PA farmer, so when I was at the WAPF conference, I bought some from another

> " farmer " . Hey, the guy had a booth there, he was real popular, I figured

>it was good stuff, eh?

>

>Thing is, when I took it out of the fridge to plop it in the pan, it was

>way soft ... not rock-hard solid like the PA guys' is. Sort of the

>consistency of refrigerated bacon fat, maybe even more soft (which is

>connected, since I meant to ask why why why about that too ... why is bacon

>grease softer than lard?).

I'm eating that guy's lard as we speak. But mine is fairly hard, not at all

soft. It has to do with the amount of EFAs vs. monos vs. saturates. Lard is

predominantly composed of monounsatured fats so shouldn't be as hard as CO

and conversely not as soft as liquid flax oil. I *think* that relative

softness or hardness of lard could have to do with what the pigs were fed,

thus affecting their sf/mf/pufa ratios. I'm mot sure though. Maybe someone

else can discuss this possibility. It would also have to do with the area of

the animal it was taken from. I'd *guess* that leaf lard is harder, as it's

from fat surrounding the kidneys I think, and that fat tends to be pretty

saturated. Someone please correct me if I got this wrong!

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

http://www.westonaprice.org

----------------------------

" The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times. " --

Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

<http://www.thincs.org>

----------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

> consistency of refrigerated bacon fat, maybe even more soft (which is

> connected, since I meant to ask why why why about that too ... why is

bacon

> grease softer than lard?).

>

> So I guess it's all connected ... why is bacon grease softer than lard?

> The salt, the cooking process? And why is one lard softer than

another?

>

> MFJ

Bacon grease is softer because of the brine. One lard may be softer than

another depending on what the pig ate, parts fat from and the lard making

process. Someone here uses water as an Amish process IIRC. Wonder if vendor

uses that process and all the water isn't out like me making butter. :-) Are

you sure both are pork lard? Just finished french fries in very hard

homemade beef tallow for the first time in 30+ years. Woke up dh to a

compliment bigger than most.

Wanita

[Guest guest]

It actually depends on what the animal ate... corn and grain create hard

fat, and grass fed creates " liquidy " fat.

> >Thing is, when I took it out of the fridge to plop it in the pan, it was

> >way soft ... not rock-hard solid like the PA guys' is. Sort of the

> >consistency of refrigerated bacon fat, maybe even more soft (which is

> >connected, since I meant to ask why why why about that too ... why is

>bacon

> >grease softer than lard?).

>

>I'm eating that guy's lard as we speak. But mine is fairly hard, not at all

>soft. It has to do with the amount of EFAs vs. monos vs. saturates. Lard is

>predominantly composed of monounsatured fats so shouldn't be as hard as CO

>and conversely not as soft as liquid flax oil. I *think* that relative

>softness or hardness of lard could have to do with what the pigs were fed,

>thus affecting their sf/mf/pufa ratios. I'm mot sure though. Maybe someone

>else can discuss this possibility. It would also have to do with the area

>of

>the animal it was taken from. I'd *guess* that leaf lard is harder, as it's

>from fat surrounding the kidneys I think, and that fat tends to be pretty

>saturated. Someone please correct me if I got this wrong!

>

>

>

>Suze Fisher

>Lapdog Design, Inc.

>Web Design & Development

>http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

>Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

>http://www.westonaprice.org

>

>----------------------------

> " The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

>heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times. " --

>Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

>University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

>

>The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

><http://www.thincs.org>

>----------------------------

>

> >

>

>

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[Guest guest]

At 07:41 PM 10/27/04 -0400, you wrote:

>Bacon grease is softer because of the brine. One lard may be softer than

>another depending on what the pig ate, parts fat from and the lard making

>process. Someone here uses water as an Amish process IIRC. Wonder if vendor

>uses that process and all the water isn't out like me making butter. :-) Are

>you sure both are pork lard? Just finished french fries in very hard

>homemade beef tallow for the first time in 30+ years. Woke up dh to a

>compliment bigger than most.

Well, they both *say* it's pork lard, and I don't have any reason to

disbelieve them. I'll bet in this case it's a question of what the pig

ate AND the processing - one guy's a bit more ... high tech ... than the

other, I think.

Made great taters though!

MFJ

I wanna live! I wanna explore the Universe! And I wanna eat pie!

~Urgo