On Sep 30, 2013, at 1:25 AM, Lobo <lobo119@gmail.com> wrote:
>I haven't heard of leaf lard, but have a lard question. I learned to
>bake using lard which my mom rendered from hogs we had butchered. We
>used it in anything asking for shortening...cookies, pie crust, bread, etc.
Leaf lard is the fat around the kidneys of the pig, which is the
hardest, highest melting point fat in an animal (Suet is the fat from
the same place in a cow.). Rendered into lard, it's more than 95%
fat to nearly 100% fat depending on the rendering. (The balance is
water and other bits of meat.) Butter is 80% fat, 20% water. (Some
fancy butters are a bit higher fat.) You might, or might not want to
adjust recipes based on that, if you're subbing for butter.
I've never baked bread with it, but it's a traditional ingredient in
panettone and lardy cakes, and other similar things. I'll use lard
for savory pastries, if I have it or it's a special thing. But I
don't think it's terribly good in sweat pastry, it's pretty tasteless.
>I recently bought some lard at the grocery store where it was stored
>on the shelf (I keep it in the refrigerator). When I opened it, I
>thought it smelled like manure. Has anyone else ever noticed such a
>smell? I used it anyway and didn't notice any off taste or smell in
>the bread or pie crust. Still, it sort of puts me off.
The stuff you got is hydrogenated to prevent spoilage and allow room
temperature storage. It might be slightly rancid, it might be just
low quality, with more non fat in it. If you can, see if you can get
some freshly rendered stuff (or some fat, and render it at home. Not
hard.) The stuff I buy at the butcher is only a bit more than
supermarket stuff.