My computer binged and it was a friend of mine.. would you like a couple bags of Freshly done but now frozen of Pasture raised heritage organic pork fat.

I was like ok, two bags, maybe three? Well her one extra freezer was on just for these bags of fat and so when she pulled in my driveway it was with four of these massive bags of fat.. took every bit of available space in my freezer’s (without me turning on a extra one).

So this post is showing just one bag, all the bags are right around the same weight. I had really hoped that it would come in ground, which is the easiest way to get the fat for grinding back from the butcher but instead it was in slabs. I had to make a choice, grind it or cube it.. I when with cube it.. it means cracklings at the as well as lard.

I was pleased to see that within each bag was the leaf fat, this very pure fat does not have the skin on it, like the bigger pieces do that you can see above in the bag.  This fat was rendered on its own and will be labels as pie crust fat only.

This fat was very fresh and the smell was excellent, you can tell by the color and texture of this lard that the pigs were not feed soy and that they had access to pasture.

Farmgal Tip of the day 

Always work with very cold fat when doing this.. keep parts in the freezer and only allow them to warm up a few min before you start your cutting work, it will make a huge difference to the process (or grind it, but again keep that fat almost frozen before putting it into the grinder)

I was running three pots, one large standard pot for the leaf lard and two of my massive pots (one holds 9 quarts and the other 12 quarts for the regular.. I didn’t fill them more then 3/4th full at max. Always done at medium heat.. trust me you do not want a fat fire doing this.

For smaller amounts, crock pots are excellent but with this amount of lard, it would take forever to do it that way. In the end this bag gave us 18 pounds of lard and 4.6 pounds of crackling that will be used for critters

So if the other bags yield as much, then I will be putting up 72 pounds worth of high quality pork lard into the pantry. These are being stored in canning jars with lids in the cool dark (no direct light) pantry.  The keeping quality of lard is effected by making sure all water is cooked out of the lard, how well its strained(no bits left) and what its stored in and how its stored, I have very successful kept lard in canning jars for up to two years with it staying good to use.