While butchering with Jean-Luc I’ve noticed that he throws away a ton of decent looking pork fat. I’ve taken about 10 pounds home and will first experiment with making lard. He gave me the outer cuts, closest to the skin and about an inch thick with fat. There is fat in the stomach area, but this is lower quality for lard.

To render pork fat simply cut your fat up (no need to trim, all the non-fat parts will fry up and get filtered out) into small pieces and put the whole mess into a big, heavy pot. Set on medium heat and add a little water to keep from burning the fat. The fat will slowly melt and you will soon have a pot of clear, yellowish liquid frying up all manner of skin and meat. Filter this liquid into containers and voila, you have lard. It will turn white and solid at room temperature. The crispy bits can be eaten or given to animals as a little treat. The finished product is:

Lard! Still warm...

Lard might not seem all that exciting, but it’s a waste product turned useful. You can use lard to make soap, candles, grease baking pans and sheets and even saute. It’s probably not the healthiest to eat, but I wouldn’t sweat it in small quantities.