Praise the Lard

The foodie pipeline started whispering. Whispers grew to a murmur. Soon, we'll hear the roar from the stands. Our grandmothers will nod knowingly, and be proud: lard is back.

For an excellent overview of this subject, and a nice tale of a maiden voyage into cooking with (and rendering) lard, see Peter Wells piece on page 102 of December's Food & Wine. From his article (which cites a recent New York Times report by Corby Kummer), I gleaned the following:

- Lard contains just 40% saturated fat (butter has 60%).
- Lard contains 45% good, mono-unsaturated fat (twice butter's 23%).
- Lard tastes effing good.

Thing is, Wells tells us, the bricks o' lard in the supermarket are hydrogenated, which adds icky trans fat. The best lard is the pure stuff. Hungry Thom tells me he has a source for hog's back fat. We're making plans for a lard rendering party, followed by a lard dinner, which I will title Praise the Lard! and invite all my deep-fry-loving friends. Maybe Hungry T will make his famous biscuits.

And of course, golden, lard-laden pie crust cradling apples and cinnamon. I can smell it now.