# Lard: The Lost Art Of Cooking With Your Grandmother's Secret Ingredient



## Meanderer (Nov 17, 2014)

http://www.grit.com/lard-home.aspx

Using lard in cooking dates at least as far back as the 1300s. Rediscovered along with other healthful animal fats in the 1990s, lard is once again embraced by chefs, dieticians and enlightened health care professionals. Lard contains 54 percent less saturated fat than butter and some plant-derived fats. "Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredients"offers you the opportunity to cook like your grandmother, while incorporating good animal fat into your diet once again.


One hundred and fifty recipes gathered from more than 100 years of GRIT magazine are included in this cookbook. You’ll find recipes for Grandma’s Homemade Biscuits along with Henrietta's Fried Chicken, Sunshine Shortcake, Pie Crust and Homemade Flour Tortillas.


Don’t be afraid to bring a little lard back to your table. Your taste buds will be glad you did.


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## rkunsaw (Nov 17, 2014)

I think starting in the 1950s when people started switching from lard to Crisco was the beginning of the obesity problem in this country.


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## Meanderer (Nov 17, 2014)

rkunsaw said:


> I think starting in the 1950s when people started switching from lard to Crisco was the beginning of the obesity problem in this country.


I agree Larry, I found an article that describes that moment: 

http://www.weedemandreap.com/top-reasons-eating-lard/

*"In the early 1900s, the company Proctor & Gamble were doing pretty well growing & harvesting cotton.  The cottonseed, a bothersome byproduct of cotton became so numerous, that Proctor & Gamble decided to see if there was anything–anything they could make from the cottonseed to make a profit.
*
_They found after intense processing — which included heating & pressing — they were able to extract oil.  And it cost Proctor & Gamble next to NOTHING to produce it.  An easily rancid and unstable fat, the process of hydrogenation was added to make the cottonseed oil last very long.  When the cottonseed oil cooled, it looked exactly like lard._

_They called it Crisco._

_Now, this is a crucial point in our history, folks.  Proctor & Gamble’s decision to market and sell cottonseed oil (Crisco) has perhaps caused more physical sickness & suffering than we could probably number.  Proctor & Gamble effectively marketed Crisco as a cheaper & “healthier” fat.  Lard was touted as unhealthy or smelly.  They even gave away free cookbooks with every purchase of Crisco.  The cookbooks were full of common recipes, but instead of lard or butter, Crisco was listed as the ingredient.  It’s sad really, how successful they were at making people turn away from the traditional use of lard._

_Sadly, you probably eat cottonseed oil every single day.  Why?  Because cottonseed oil is in almost EVERY PACKAGED or PROCESSED food in your store. Chips, cereals, cookies, crackers, breads, salad dressings, mayonnaise, pasta sauces, fast food, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, makeup, lipstick,  EVERYTHING.  Why? Because it’s CHEAP and it increased their PROFIT!_
_According to The Atlantic:_

_“Never before had Procter & Gamble — or any company for that matter — put so much marketing support or advertising dollars behind a product. They hired the J. Walter Thompson Agency, America’s first full service advertising agency staffed by real artists and professional writers. Samples of Crisco were mailed to grocers, restaurants, nutritionists, and home economists. Eight alternative marketing strategies were tested in different cities and their impacts calculated and compared. Doughnuts were fried in Crisco and handed out in the streets. Women who purchased the new industrial fat got a free cookbook of Crisco recipes. It opened with the line, “The culinary world is revising its entire cookbook on account of the advent of Crisco, a new and altogether different cooking fat.” Recipes for asparagus soup, baked salmon with Colbert sauce, stuffed beets, curried cauliflower, and tomato sandwiches all called for three to four tablespoons of Crisco.”_
_And why is Crisco/cottonseed oil so bad for us, you ask?_

*Well, for starters cotton is not considered a food crop by the FDA and therefore is NOT regulated on the amount of pesticides that can be sprayed.  In fact, more pesticides are sprayed on cotton THAN ANY OTHER CROP.*

_According to the book, The Happiness Diet:_

_            Before processing, cottonseed oil is cloudy red and bitter to the taste because of a natural phytochemical called gossypol… and is toxic to most animals, causing dangerous spikes in the body’s potassium levels, organ damage, and paralysis. An issue of Popular Science from the era sums up the evolution of cottonseed nicely: “What was garbage in 1860 was fertilizer in 1870, cattle feed in 1880, and table food and many things else in 1890.”_
_Cottonseed has over 50% Omega-6 Fatty acids.  And although we do need a very small amount of Omega-6 fatty acids for health, too much produces an inflammatory response in our bodies.  The other thing to note here is that the fat found in cottonseed oil, Omega-6 fatty acids, could not be produced in your kitchen. Olive oil, an Omega-9 fat, could be easily made at home with some simple pressing._

_Soon after the infiltration of Crisco/cottonseed oil into our food supply, came the rise of inflammation & disease — Heart Disease, Diabetes, Infertility, Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer & Autism to name a few."_


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## JustBonee (Nov 17, 2014)

No Crisco or Lard for me.  .. 
I've  used organic Coconut Oil for a long time.. it's my go to oil for cooking and baking.


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## Meanderer (Nov 17, 2014)

Bonnie said:


> No Crisco or Lard for me.  ..
> I've  used organic Coconut Oil for a long time.. it's my go to oil for cooking and baking.


I hope you read the three reasons lard is good, found in the article.


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## Twixie (Nov 17, 2014)

Our oldies ate all the things we aren't supposed to..and they are in better health than the youngsters..

The latest foodie fad here is pork dripping..apparently now very healthy and does not block your arteries up!

I wish they'd make their minds up!!!...


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## Meanderer (Nov 17, 2014)

*#3 is pretty much what Son of Perdition talks about in his diary:   https://www.seniorforums.com/showthread.php/9679-Son-of-Perdition-tales-from-the-darkside

Finally, the TOP 3 Reasons why YOU should be eating LARD:*

*1.  It’s HEALTHY!*  —  When compared with Olive oil, Lard is a close second in the monounsaturated fat department!  Olive oil has about 77% monounsaturated fat, with Lard at 48% monounsaturated fat. Butter ranks third with 30% monounsaturated fat and Coconut oil is last at 6%. The main fat in lard, oleic acid, is a fatty acid associated with decreased risk of depression. A *Study in Thailand in 2005* also reported that oleic acid has high anti-cancer benefits and can decrease your risk of breast cancer.  Those same monounsaturated fats, are responsible for lowering LDL levels while leaving HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels alone. Shocking, right? 

Lard also contains high amounts of Vitamin D, a necessary fat-soluble vitamin.  It is estimated that 1 tablespoon of lard contains 1000 IU of Vitamin D!  As a society, we are extremely deficient in Vitamin D.  As a powerful immunity booster, the intake of Vitamin D can prevent those frequent colds & flus in your home each year.  Our family caught a cold ONE time this year.  ONCE.  We eat A LOT of Vitamin D in our household because we believe instead of buying a Vitamin D supplement, which is a processed, synthetic version, we eat the REAL stuff, the way God intended!

If you think you can get Vitamin D from plants, you are right, you can.  But they don’t come close to lard! Mushrooms are the ONLY plant source of Vitamin D, with about 21 IU per mushroom.  Personally I’d rather cook with a tablespoon of lard rather than eat 50 mushrooms every day, but that’s just me.

If you think you can get Vitamin D from the sun, you are right, you can.  But, the problem is, humans aren’t too efficient at assimilating Vitamin D from the sun.  At the recommended 20-30 minutes of sun exposure per day you will only receive 100-200 IU. Pigs, on the other hand, are superheros at absorbing Vitamin D.  This is why so much is stored in the fat under the their skin.
Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium, which is why osteoporosis is reduced and oral health is improved. Vitamin D will also aid in the removal of harmful toxic metals such as cadmium, aluminum, strontium.

  Probably one of the most important tasks of Vitamin D as well as cholesterol (which is amazingly both in LARD!) is hormone production & regulation.  When you remember that many, many processes in the body are performed by hormones, you can see why it’s so important to include lard into your diet.  Problems with your adrenals which can be manifested through* fibromyalgia*, problems with your thyroid which can be manifested through *hypothyroidim*, and problems with your sex hormones which can be manifested through *infertility* — are all related to your deficiency in fat-soluble Vitamin D and the natural food sources that God has placed on earth contain these.  Other food sources besides lard are organ meats, oily fish, egg yolks, shellfish, *fermented cod liver oil*, tallow, butter, raw milk & fat on any meat (this is why it’s good to buy a whole chicken & not fall for the skinless, boneless garbage)
If you are still believe that cholesterol is bad, I highly suggest *reading this article *or watching *this episode of Dr. Oz. *Even Dr. Oz, a cardiologist is admitting that our fear of cholesterol is unsubstantiated!

*2.  It TASTES DELICIOUS!* — We use lard to make crispy fried chicken, make deliciously flaky pies, &cooking a simple food like eggs or hash browns.   It’s not smelly, it’s divine!  Food was meant to be enjoyed!  And trust me, lard makes EVERYTHING taste a little better.

*3. It’s NATURAL & SUSTAINABLE *– If you were to raise a pig in your backyard, and butcher it when it’s about 250 pounds, you’d most likely get about 15-20 lbs. of lard.  It would take about 6-9 months to raise a pig to market weight, so if your family ate about 1 pig a year, you can guess that eating 15-20 lbs. of lard per year would be a natural and sustainable amount.  For our family of 4, we eat about a pound of lard a month so about 12 lbs. a year.


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## Twixie (Nov 17, 2014)

Hi Jim...by ''lard'' do you just mean the white stuff?

Pork dripping also contains the brown jelly out of the meat..

Delicious on fresh bread with a sprinkling of salt!!


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## Twixie (Nov 17, 2014)

And I can't take cod liver oil capsules..even the ones that are supposed to be odour free..

They make me burp all day with a slight hint of rotten fish!!


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## AprilT (Nov 17, 2014)

It's the combination of what we eat, more than anything.  I know my elders ate a healthy daily serving of butters and lards and live into their 100's at least my great grands and before him.  Something in the diets of the generations after changed and some of us started dying off younger and younger.  I imagine portions and other lifestyle issues played in as well, but, still, they were living high on the fat back in the day and living past 100 in my family.

I do know for me anytime I stick with a somewhat higher fat healthier carb level way of eating, my numbers improve drastically.  Unfortunately, I'm an addicted to the other white stuff, processed carbs.  I'm still working on kicking it though.  That reminds me, I need to go pick up my new BP meds I keep forgetting.  LOL.


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## Lee (Nov 19, 2014)

This is indeed interesting....something old is new again. And it's true, pies were delish made with lard back in the day. I may just forego my canola oil crust and go back to lard. Thanks Meanderer.


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## Raven (Nov 19, 2014)

There is so much confusing information aimed at us that it is hard to know what to believe.
Most of the info we are given is to sell a certain product.
I do not plan to go back to using lard or Crisco any time soon.  The thought of eating lard makes
me nauseous.


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## Jackie22 (Nov 19, 2014)

Me neither, Raven, I would not touch the stuff.


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## Meanderer (Nov 19, 2014)

Raven said:


> There is so much confusing information aimed at us that it is hard to know what to believe.
> Most of the info we are given is to sell a certain product.
> I do not plan to go back to using lard or Crisco any time soon.  The thought of eating lard makes
> me nauseous.


If you read the article it explains the difference between Crisco (bad) and Lard(good).  You don't eat the lard, you use it in baking, instead of Crisco.  Butter is also good.


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## Meanderer (Nov 19, 2014)

Lee said:


> This is indeed interesting....something old is new again. And it's true, pies were delish made with lard back in the day. I may just forego my canola oil crust and go back to lard. Thanks Meanderer.


Lee, you seem to have a balanced approach to life.  Good for you!


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## Lee (Nov 19, 2014)

and thank you for the compliment Jim....I'm blushing


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## Son_of_Perdition (Nov 19, 2014)

My father lived to be 94, smoked like a stove pipe, eat anything as long as it was dipped in chocolate.  Had two eggs every morning, his coffee was legendary for it's strength, refused to eat margarine was a meat and potatoes type of guy.  He loved onions (his health food), once had mother dice some up in his pancakes.  Took an aspirin a day, nothing else, had low blood pressure, low collateral and outlived every doctor who told him to eat more healthy and give up smoking.  If he hadn't fell and perforated his bowel he would probably still be watching his favorite basketball team lose.   

 He was raised on a farm, his mother made baking powder biscuits every day, made her delicious pies with lard and her favorite meat was thick sliced fresh bacon.  She lived to 98. All his brothers (7) lived well into their 80's, 2 died of accidents, none had hardened arteries, heart disease or cancer.  The one that died of weight problems was 89 when he passed at over 400 lbs.  My mother also was farm raised and always had a tub of lard in the refrigerator for cooking and baking.  Eggs, butter, coffee, lard, unsalted and real buttered popcorn are the new health foods, they even claim Cheese Whiz is healthy for you.

 Maybe heredity, it's hard to argue with the reality.  I've heard it said that the 20th century is killing America with pesticides and herbicides prevalent in our food chain. Products are chemically made for our consumption that is proven many years later to be harmful and unhealthy.   

 Many medications are agreeably life saving but many more are removed from the market because the cure is worse than the aliment.  How many times do you see the TV, magazine advertising for this legal group or that group that want you to jump on the gravy train to sue the drug manufacturers for a drug you are taking or have taken that causes horrible side effects.     

 I don't know the answers but in my case I was mis-diagnosed with diabetes type II, put on Benicar (now they're being sued) and it tuned out to be anemia, once my count was normal my diabetes disappeared.  Spent a year taking one Tylenol daily for pain from surgery and later because it was habit, then through blood tests they had me revert back to an aspirin a day because I was developing a liver condition caused by the well known ingredient in most pain reliever drugs on the market today.  My count has returned to normal.   

 We don't eat margarine, we use coconut oil or butter to cook with and the only way I pop my nightly popcorn is in a brown paper bag, pour one tablespoon of melted real butter over it and leave the salt in the shaker.  Prepackaged microwave popcorn will kill you,


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## Meanderer (Nov 19, 2014)

You sure said a mouth-full Son!   For your Dad's generation, eating was a joy, rather than a religion.  Most people just ate what they liked, or what they could afford. Advertising was at arm's length, and the world was less polluted and populated.   I understand even rats have a hard time when living elbow to elbow.  The air and water were cleaner too.  They probably didn't know what "health-food" or "exercise" meant.  They just walked everywhere and ran when they had to.  The old ways served them well, and just to live out your life to a ripe old age, at home and at peace, was a real accomplishment. 

Each person was probably an individual in their own way, and they liked it that way. I've been taking a little apple cider vinegar, diluted with water, and I feel it has been beneficial.   In case no one has ever told you, you have a golden tongue! ...so watch out that nobody tries to cut it out to cash it in.  Keep up your writing...and the day may come, when you will cash it in.  Thanks again for checking in.


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