In the Kitchen with Mother Linda
When visiting Budapest, I was treated to a special demonstration on how to make a traditional apple strudel. Two young female chefs at Owl’s Nest, owned by world-renowned restaurateur George Lang, stretched a pliant dough made from flour and lard until it was thin enough to read newspaper through, and then, after adding the filling, rolled the dough into a cylinder as long as the table. A few quick cuts made smaller rolls that would fit on a baking tray that was whisked off to the oven. This was to be my dessert. I would come to learn there is no substitute for the lard used in traditional Hungarian pastries and other fine dishes.
“I go back to my childhood in Hungary,” says Lang, “where lard had a completely different connotation from the one in the West. Here, we accept the French credo that the three things most needed in the kitchen are butter, butter and butter. But I grew up with dishes cooked almost exclusively with pork lard. It was even spread on a good slice of bread with paprika, used in the preservation of pickles and vegetables to seal the jars, and to make splendid pastries and patés.”
The healthy, 78-year-old Lang, who lives a life between two continents, thinks that today’s characterization of lard as unhealthy, verging on damaging, is most unfortunate. To him, certain things–some most unexpected ones–simply taste better when made with lard. “Scrambled eggs fried in lard are fabulous,” he says.
In Germany, an unusual but ubiquitous appetizer is Grieben Schmalz, which is lard with cracklings (Grieben), which are the solids left after rendering the lard. This produces something the consistency of crunchy peanut butter. This humble appetizer, often served at room temperature in little stoneware pots, is spread on rye bread as an appetizer (or a buffer against intoxication) with a glass of wine before dinner. It has even made its way into some of the best restaurants, like those in the Four Seasons Hotel in Hamburg. Newcomers may be squeamish about trying this traditional German farmhouse food, but will likely become hooked on the very flavorful spread if they do.
While the Germans may have a new-found appreciation for lard–or secretly kept it all along–other cultures are battling with their stance on the fat. For example, a recent article in The New York Times featured a Mexican woman who opened a restaurant in Oaxaca and then bemoaned the fact that the locals were boycotting her establishment because she had substituted canola oil for lard in all her dishes. I side with the locals. Lard, although commonly misidentified as a saturated fat, should really be classified as a monounsaturated fat. According to Mary Enig, author of Know Your Fats, lard is about 40 percent saturated, 50 percent monounsaturated, and contains 10 percent polyunsaturated fatty acids. It is also one of our richest dietary sources of vitamin D.
Obviously, lard is making a comeback from its nadir after years of vilification by big food corporations eager to push their plastic substitutes (see “The Rise and Fall of Crisco,” Wise Traditions, Summer 2001).
As for me, I make a sport out of hunting down good sources of lard. Since most of the lard sold in grocery stores (if you are lucky enough to find it at all) contains preservatives like BHT added to prolong its shelf life, I look for farmers who sell what they can’t use. Sometimes local butchers carry additive-free lard, or can order it for you.
After years of experimenting with other shortenings, such as Crisco in my misinformed youth and butter in my “French phase,” I have returned to lard, because it makes the most pliable and dependably flaky crust–an ideal partner for fall fruit pies. I have come to the opinion that there is no substitute for lard when making a pie crust–not even butter for it does not impart the same “stretchable” and “flaky” qualities to the dough as lard–as I personally witnessed in Hungary.
According to food science guru Harold McGee, this is due to its chemistry. Lipids, like other molecules, form crystals just below their melting point. Lard is better suited for pastries because it forms crystals so large they impart a noticeably grainy texture to the dough–which produces wonderful flakiness.
Mother Linda’s Pie Crust
Feel free to alter the type of flour, but be aware that low-gluten flours like spelt will not make a good pie crust and that the flour you choose will completely dictate the amount of water needed. Enjoy!
- 2½ cups unbleached white flour, whole wheat pastry flour or a combination
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup lard
- about ½ cup cold water
Measure flour into a medium-sized bowl, add salt and stir. Add lard and use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the lard into pea-sized pieces until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add water one tablespoon at a time, and lightly knead with your hands until dough forms. Divide dough into two equal parts and form each into a flattened ball. Wrap each with waxed paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Makes two 10-inch pie crusts.
For more information:
- Black, Kent, (August 14, 2002). In Oaxaca, a Cook Creates a Stir, The New York Times, pp. D1 & D4.
- Forristal, Linda Joyce, (Summer 2001). The Rise and Fall of Crisco, Wise Traditions, pp. 56-57.
- Lang, George, The Cuisine of Hungary, Bonanza Books, New York, 1990.
- McGee, Harold, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1984.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation, Fall 2002.
🖨️ Print post
On behalf of the human species whom may benefit so endlessly from ‘the fat of the land’ I send our greatest endearments to the One that complements all things fried, baked, and slathered, you are nature’s dearest health bounty. Thank the kingdom, for Lard has come. 🙂
In Singapore, organic meat is VERY COSTLY. You practically have to be a physician or lawyer to be able to afford it. If anyone knows howto get organic lard Iin Singapore at an affordable price, please let me know.
I make excellent pie crust with spelt and lard all the time.
Real lard is not white, it is light tan. It is not hard in the cooler, it is soft.
Hard white lard has been industrially refined and hydrogenated & is a dangerous transfat.
If you keep it in a cold place, yes, its hard.
The hydrogenated form of lard made be hard in the refrigerator . I rendered my own lard and keep it in the refrigerator and it is soft and spreadable even though it is cold.
When I have rendered my lard it has been white. When I use fat from around the kidneys, leaf lard, it is solid at room temperature, and when I use backfat, it is thick and pourable at room temperature but solid in the fridge.
It’s tan if the Grieben Schmalz referred to above isn’t strained out of the melted fat.
Otherwise, it is snow white, and soft at room temperature.
The Grieben Schmalz is gelatin-like tissue, and has a biscuity smell.
Are you saying that from experience? I’ve taken the leaf lard from the carcass many a time and rendered it down. If it is is anything but a beautiful white that’s probably because it was scorched during the rendering process. That tan color would be overcooked fat. And definitely hard if it is in the cooler. It will be creamy at or right above room temperature.
This is not true. I render lard all the time from our pastured hogs – just heat and fat – no additives, and it is beautifully pure and white.
I just spent the weekend rendering fat into lard. I will say it is white. This in response to someone who said it was not white. Looks pretty white to me. Is odorless and easily spread.
What would the fat from uncured bacon when cooking the bacon down be considered? Is it healthy to use or not? Can it replace lard? Is it best to make your own lard and if so do you have an article on how to render it?
I do save my bacon fat to use for a variety of things from sautéing to salad dressing. To make your own lard, just cut pieces of pig fat into chunks of about 2″ (not necessary to be precise) and place them in a baking pan. Put this in an oven set at 170-200 degrees for about 8 hours, straining off the clear liquid fat into jars or tubs. When enough is rendered that most of the lard has melted out you will be left with “cracklings”, which you can scoop out onto a paper towel, sprinkle with salt, and enjoy hot and fresh! Lard will keep for months in the fridge or freezer.
I have rendered lard for years and have always gotten white solid lard. Yesterday, I rendered lard and all the jars are half liquid! It was really warm in here yesterday while processing, but it’s 73 in here this morning. I always have kept my lard at room temperature when jarred, and now I’m wondering about this stuff. Anyone else have this happen to them?
I imagine that the lard is liquid because it is high in monounsaturated fat (similar to olive oil) What yummy mouth feel this will yield! Lucky you!
Your article was really fun and very informative. I never grew up with lard as a part of my diet. My mother only cooked with it occasionally if she decided to make pie using lard (but kept it a secret because it turned people off…including me). But a few years ago my husband and I finally got our first family milk cow and at that time, my husband tried desperately to talk me into getting a pig. I was adamite that pigs were terrible animals. But then he found this incredible breed from Hungary, called the Mangalitsa or also know in Hungary as Mangalica. Mangalitsas are a lard pig and are considered the most genetically unaltered pig on the planet. They look like sheep and have red meat. Their diet is mainly a diet of foraging. Now, beautiful white lard is our main source of fat. It is incredibly tasty and versatile. I have also replaced butter and other oils in almost all of my baking. My children like it so much that they even put it on their popcorn! I am wondering if this is the type of lard that you had when you were in Hungary?