The Magic of Leaf Lard

Made from the visceral fat, namely a sheet of vaguely leaf-shaped fat stored around the loin and kidneys of a pig, leaf lard has a smooth and creamy texture.  It’s soft and spreadable at room temperature, meaning that it has very different cooking properties than a generic block of backfat lard.

The most important distinction in leaf lard?  It doesn’t taste like pork.  That means it’s perfect for making donuts, pie or just about any old school country recipe in the traditional way.

If you want to skip that rendering step and just buy it ready to use, pre-made leaf lard generally costs $25-$30/lb. If you’re going to render your own leaf lard, you have to either raise a pig or buy a sheet of it from your local butcher.  They’ll know exactly what you’re talking about and can special order it if they don’t carry it. 

Note: If there are any meat nubbins, remove these so that you don’t carry any pork flavor forward.

A pound of leaf lard will render down to about two cups of finished leaf lard.

While it’s liquid, leaf lard has a golden yellow color, but once it cools completely the leaf lard will be a pure snow white.  At this point, if you’ve done it right and patiently kept the temperature low, the leaf lard should have no porky taste.  The texture will be creamy and spreadable, like very soft butter.

Cap up the hot lard jars quickly and they’ll seal, preventing condensation from the air as they cool.  The main spoiler of lard is moisture contamination, so now that you’ve driven off the liquid through rendering get it capped hot to keep it out. 

Many thanks to Ashley at Practical Self Reliance in Vermont for her rendering tips!