Said Giovanni Cervantes, chef and co-owner of Taqueria Ramírez, quoted in
"The Unapologetic Poetry of ‘All May Contain Lard’/A menu disclaimer that’s also a mission statement" (NY Magazine).
One fan of the proclamation is Eric Sze, the chef and owner of the Taiwanese restaurant Wenwen, which recently opened nearby: “I loved Taqueria Ramírez when I went, so the fact that they have the line,” he says, “you’re putting your — for lack of a better term — genitals on the table, and showing everybody what you got, take it or leave it.”...
The author Bill Buford calls lard “an expression of utter deliciousness and possibility” with an “ancient, ancient tradition."... Meanwhile, Aaron Foster, who renders lard from whole Pennsylvania pasture pigs at his market Foster Sundry, says it is “something that went away with our grandparents, like knitting and sourdough baking, that has come back into fashion. There’s something outré about it,” he adds, “because our parents wouldn’t be caught dead touching lard, and there’s something nostalgic about it.”
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62 comments:
... because our parents wouldn’t be caught dead touching lard...
I feel kinda ancient because my mother rendered her own lard for years when I was a kid in the 1970s though my parents were a bit older than usual. Only way to deep-fry food.
“you’re putting your — for lack of a better term — genitals on the table
Is there really not a better term? I find that very hard to believe. It's not even a good term. Who wants to sit at a restaurant table where the owner may have put his genitals?
I was caught touching lard once.
I was all like, Oh shit, but then nothing happened so now I just touch it if I feel like it.
It takes a lard toucher...
Good lard is pretty much flavorless. I'm not a fan of it, even for pie crust: I prefer butter. If you use lard for your piecrust, you really need a nice flavor-full flour, and the flour I buy doesn't have enough flavor.
“you’re putting your — for lack of a better term — genitals on the table, and showing everybody what you got, take it or leave it.”...
Needs a sign warning: All tables may have had genitals on them.
Store lard -- and all commercial lard -- just plain sucks. "Craft" lard has incredible pork flavor. I raised small-farm hogs for years, and my butcher knew to trim it tight. I'd render my own and pack it in yogurt tubs for separate sale to my meat customers, who happily paid a huge premium once I gave them a sample of my pie crust.
Take a genital/leave a genital
My parents used Crisco, which took the place of lard. For years I could only find lard in stores with a significant Latino clientele, and then only in gallon buckets. Now I can buy it by the pound in a lot of stores. It really does add an unctuousness to fried foods that no other fat does, and it’s unparalleled for biscuits and pie crusts. Say Yes to Lard.
Lard pastry is SO flaky. Butter and lard mix is even better - taste and flakes! It’s essential in some dishes or the texture isn’t right.
Just a mess to work with unless you keep it cold.
Everything TASTES better when cooked in or with lard. Have a fried donut fried in lard, and NOTHING tastes better.
Jewess Jeans: The Lardache Look
Manteca sounds so much more delicious. Looks like lard appreciation is on a slower time cycle than stagflation. I'm a longtime fan.
Lard is fine if you don't have tallow in the cupboard.
Little known fact: lard has aphrodisiacal properties.
Wait until these folks try beef tallow.
Yes I'm a child of lard. Pie crust for sure. But I have to say the women in my life,(being taught my moms technique) turn out the best pies (crust)using butter, as determined by church ladies.
Animal fat is a biological craving. No mater how you think, your brain craves animal fat.
If only those meatless hamburger people would admit to using animal fat in their concoction.
Get your KY Lard through the Althouse Amazon Portal.
Thanks. I'll be singing Shortening Bread all day.
flaky crusts REQUIRE lard
Hey Yance, keep my wife’s lard outta yor freakin mouf.
french fries (or, as wendybar said.. Donuts)) fried in lard are de-lish
You know what THEY replaced lard with?
Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable oil, which is another word for DEATH
You know what THEY replaced butter with?
Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable oil, which is another word for DEATH
You Know what THEY replaced Delicious Whole Milk with: Skimmed Chalk
NEVER listen, to what THEY say.. THEY are TRYING to KILL US
I still remember the incredible crunch and taste of fish and chips fried in beef tallow and served in newspaper in small takeout places in London after a night of Guinness pints. As fine as any gourmet food at that moment. I don’t think they use beef tallow anymore.
Hold up your hand if you're old enough to have parents who saved bacon grease in metal coffee cans for uses such as frying eggs.
It turns out there really is a KY Lard.
There was a young ward name of Yancey
His lard all the ladies did fancy
Their donuts and pies
And crispy French fries
Widely craved though really quite chancey
Hand raise.
Absolutely saved bacon grease. (don't waste the lard!)
Now that the plebes are into health food, the rich must do something different. So its back to Lard.
Not a fan of Lard. I ususally reduce the fat in most of my stews and dishes when its my turn to cook. Not out of health reasons, I'm just into fat.
Look, I gave them all the legally required disclaimers upfront. I take no responsibility for the consequences.
My mother saved it, too- though she usually used it for breakfast gravies.
I still save bacon fat. Popcorn popped with bacon fat is very yummy. The smell of onions sautéing in bacon fat is one the best aromas. It is the smell of great food, family dinner, and comfort for my family.
serious question
if y'all DON'T save your bacon fat; What do you fry your pork chops in? PAM?
Growing up on a pre-running water and pre-electric rural SW Missouri farm, we ritually slaughtered two hogs each Thanksgiving day (best chance for appropriate temperature to sugar cure hams when not to cold for cure to take and not too warm with danger of spoilage). My job as a child was to cut the pork fat into cubes for the rendering kettle and then the lard press. What was left in the press was the skin, which had become cracklings--excellent for snacking fresh and in cornbread when dried. We really did say appropriate prayers thanking the hogs for their gift and the Lord for providing for us for another year. Some years it was touch and go if the cured and smoked and canned pork and summer vegetables would make it through till spring. And there is still a metal can of bacon grease in my refrigerator. And a great way to make lard is to cook a whole Boston butt roast (bone in, good fat cap) at 200 degrees for 24 hours, then cool the juices to skim off the fat, which becomes lard in the fridge.
When I was a boy, we couldn’t afford real ice cream. We did have an old-fashioned crank ice cream maker, so we’d take sour milk, a little sugar and other ingredients and make our own. You’d be surprised how refreshing a bowl of chicken fat ripple or lasagna chip ice milk tastes on a hot summer day.
There was a sad sack name of howard
And all he met wished he’d showered
Thought with a dollop of lard
He’d write like the Bard
But all it got him was deflowered
Lard is better for you than anything that has carbs in it,
Ron Winkleheimer said...
Hold up your hand if you're old enough to have parents who saved bacon grease in metal coffee cans for uses such as frying eggs.
Wife and kids cook bacon every morning in the oven.
I take the aluminum foil they bake the bacon in that is full of bacon grease and wrap a steak in it. Dump salt on it. Let it sit on the oven all day while things are getting cooked around it.
Sear all the edges for about 30 seconds on a very hot pan.
Nice and warm and red. Goes well with a couple fried eggs for dinner.
Should replace All the News That's Fit to Print.
Bread fried in bacon grease, then sprinkled with brown sugar (swoon): my German mom's occasional substitute for the family's week night dessert.
I use duck fat for most saute dishes. Very healthy, better than butter for you.
I use duck fat when sauteing veg and meats. Very healthy, better than butter.
I love lard, tallow, goose fat... Is there anything that hipsters won't ruin? Why can't they ever just shut the fuck up?
The Italians are on to something with Lardo as charcuterie. Cured and spiced--and uncooked--fat from the back of a ig.
My Mom and relatives used to make soap with lard. Usually for washing clothes in a ringer washer. She still had several large tubs of the stuff in the basement when we had to clean out the house and a relative took it all.
I make soap and often use lard in my recipes. It is funny to see the reactions of people I gift soap to. "What's in it?" they ask. I run down the list "olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil and lard." The Who Farted look appears once I've spit out the word lard. "I don't like the idea of rubbing lard all over my body." I gave up trying to explain that the process of saponifying oils/fats turns them into salts a long time ago. Regardless of how many "believe the science" signs are on display in Seattle - most are woefully science ignorant, and phrases like "chemical transformation" are just too much but concepts like "it cleans out the toxins" are accepted without question.
My sister is a vegan, but I omit the fact there is lard in the soap I give her.
The stuff in the green and white buckets in the grocery store called Manteca is a combination of rendered and hydrogenated lard- probably not much better than good old trans-fat Crisco. Probably done to make it shelf stable for long periods of time.
Raw leaf lard (the fat around the kidneys of a pig) makes a much better product once rendered. I've done it - it's not difficult; just time consuming. It does make the house smell like bacon for ages after.
https://food52.com/blog/10423-in-praise-of-lard-and-how-to-render-your-own
I use lard exclusively for pastry dough as it seems to be more forgiving than 100% butter and less prone to shrinkage if you have to blind bake the crust first. You can use the same method for rendering suet (beef fat) for tallow. If I recall correctly it was the thing that made McDonald's fries absolutely addictive.
I roomed briefly with a kid from VA during a summer in CA [1978]
he taught me breakfast ?American style/
cook bacon; fry baloney slices in grease; fry eggs next; fry bread slice toast.
pan is now clean.
sit down eat drink your juice.
How to make Chicharron Prensado.
Yo mama saves lard
Yo mama saves lard but then forgets where she put it.
Yo mama smiles to herself when she remembers where she put that lard.
Yo mama smells. Like lard. That Joe Biden forgot he still had since 1973.
Yo mama waterproofs her army boots with lard.
Yo mama put lard in your milk thinking it was Bosco.
How'd you know about that?
I didn’t know. I just figured it’s the kind of thing she’d do.
Yo mama’s favorite Star Trek character is a Lardassian.
She does have good instincts.
Ima fix myself a nice tall glass of delicious lardmilk. Let the weekend commence!
And in China, if one is not careful, one can eat food fried in "gutter oil" obtained by rendering sewage.
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