Rendering lard. Yep. Like this. Except our pig had a lot less fat than that since we prefer leaner meat for a better flavor... plus we prefer feeding a variety of different foods (all the table scraps we can, plus any milk we have extra) to our pigs for best flavor. I've never done this before... new territory! But I don't want to waste, and we're buying lard right now, so we might as well see if we can get some from our own piggy. I have to say, though, this really stinks. Like, put a "Do not open!" sign on the roaster oven, stinks. I'm about to go tie a bandana over my nose and pour the liquid, oil like stuff out of the roaster, through a strainer. I think I'll put a drop of essential oil on the bandana, too... the smell is pretty strong, discernible even with the lid on the roaster oven. Next time, I'm going to do it on the porch or something. Not the kitchen!
We butchered last Saturday, with a lot of help from family, thankfully. I mostly labeled bags, and ran around getting things. And sewed while we were waiting for the meat to come in. :) Once in, it needed cut into the cuts. I am thrilled with all the beautiful sirloin chops we ended up with! And some nice roasts as well.
Yesterday Micah made some breaded pork for dinner. It needed some sweet and sour sauce to be perfect, but was very, very yummy!
4 comments:
Some advice: do NOT spill the melted lard. If you do spill the lard do NOT use dish towels to soak it up. If you do use dish towels to soak it up, do NOT put them in the washing machine (especially if your washing machine only has a cold rinse available). Love, MrsB
Okay, love the header! "...Honey look at Natalie's blog...my blog might need a cool header..." :)
Mrs. B, when I mentioned I was going to try to render lard, one of the Mrs. Amigos (can't remember which) warned me strongly about those exact things! :) If I'd had a spill, I planned on using old yucky towels and throwing them away...
Thanks Brooke! Micah accidentally took my phone to work yesterday, so I had no internet. So that was what I did in my "ok, I need to sit down and drink some water for just a second" breaks. ;) It was super easy, I like the new Paint program in Windows 7. It has a brush called crayon, but on the black it looks like chalk, which I love. :)
I so want to paint some chalkboard paint in our office someday, so this is my temporary chalkboard fix. ;)
Ok, update...
The lard, sadly, failed. I don't think I did anything wrong, but our pig wasn't really fat - more muscle, nice lean meat - so I ended up with something that looks more like broth. So disappointing after enduring the horrible smell for days!
Oh well. :)
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