Comments on: Mangalitsa leaf lard biscuits

By: redmenace

redmenace — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:19:58 +0000

I’m so excited to try the leaf lard. Great post. Thanks!

By: Renée

Renée — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:12:21 +0000

Spoken like a true Asian (pork is multipurpose). There’s something about using lard in pastry… and I think you’ve captured it right here.

Will I ever get the chance to sample all these pork-based treats?

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:01:26 +0000

I am so glad that others love lard in pastry and baking. It really adds something.

By: lorna

lorna — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:59:58 +0000

I will make biscuits for you girls someday! They are one of my favorite things to eat, with lots of good butter.

By: Valentina

Valentina — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:45:53 +0000

Lorna,

The biscuits looks…*I can’t talk…I’m drooling!*

I love biscuits and one of my favorite cuisines is Southern (American). And I love lard. I know there are many that will never use it, but oh, Lord, it does add so much to food. Thanks to Heath for the great explanation about Mangalitsa lard.

Beautiful photo, too!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:27:15 +0000

Thanks for the mention Lorna. I can not get over how flaky those look. Looks like I have more rendering to do!

By: lorna

lorna — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:04:49 +0000

Thanks Giyen!

Heath: Thanks for the tips! I will render it at a lower temperature next time and see if I notice a difference.

By: Giyen

Giyen — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:19:47 +0000

That biscuit looks awesome. I am going to have to look up this leaf lard. Like right now. : )

Cheers,
Giyen

By: Heath Putnam

Heath Putnam — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:01:20 +0000

Another thing – anyone who is really into knowing where their food comes from might be interested in this event: http://www.mosefund.com/pigstock2010_XX.html

People will buy, slaughter, cut and process their own Mangalitsa pigs, under the supervision of Austrian experts. There will be some lard rendering, of course.

By: Heath Putnam

Heath Putnam — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:29:23 +0000

I’m happy you liked the lard!

A few comments:

Fat quality is determined by multiple factors like breed, feed and age at slaughter. Wooly Pigs, the company, optimizes those things to produce the highest quality fat.

When you’ve got a producer like Wooly Pigs, which optimizes fat quality, most people can’t perceive a huge difference betweent the lard rendered from the leaf lard and the fatback. You probably could have rendered lard from Wooly Pigs fatback (from Mangalitsa pigs) and gotten very similar results. Of course, if you don’t optimize the breed, feed or age at slaughter, the fat quality on the pig will vary more; so it would pay to take the leaf lard.

In a few weeks, I’ll have Mangalitsa lard for sal (5# buckets). It isn’t easy to get USDA-inspected lard made, but Wooly Pigs has done it.

There’s different ways to render lard. Depending on how hot you make the lard, you get more or less impurities in the lard. The Austrian ideal is fewer impurities. The goal is white fat that lasts a long time. That means rendering around 225F. In Mexico, for instance, I hear they render at higher temperatures, producing a more porky lard that doesn’t keep as long.

Mangalitsa lard whips. I suggest you render Mangalitsa lard at 225F, whip it, add salt and herbs and eat it: http://woolypigs.blogspot.com/2008/11/whipped-mangalitsa-lard-mangalitsa.html

In the past, people used a lard sieve to keep impurities out of their lard. I’ve rigged one up. It seems to improve the quality of the lard. You can see a photo of one here: http://woolypigs.com/_kropf.html

I think Mangalitsa lard is really amazing. There’s a bunch of steps, and it can go wrong at any step – but if you do them all right, you can really wind up with something amazing. As that antique lard sieve indicates, there was a time when people took lard very seriously.