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NOTE 25. In Praise of Lard

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In Praise of Lard

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The use of lard in cooking is slowly being rehabilitated, but the cultural shock of the stuff hasn't diminished in the slightest.

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There I was at the store, buying just two products, lard and salt.

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They sat on the black conveyor belt, awaiting checkout at the store.

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The guy behind me, something like this happens every time I buy lard, asked incredulously,

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So, my routine lecture began.

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I use lard for making biscuits.

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Sometimes I fry those lard biscuits in lard, and these I call hot puffs and eat them with

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honey.

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Lard is essential for pie crusts.

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It makes great chocolate chip cookies.

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I can't imagine frying potatoes in anything else.

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It is excellent for chicken.

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Pancakes and waffles are never better than when made with lard.

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Popcorn not fried in lard, air pop, please, is noticeably inferior.

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Cakes are wonderful with lard.

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The refried beans you eat are not authentic if they do not include lard.

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All that amounts to nearly a bucket per week of lard use, I admit it.

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All the while, as I'm giving this list, the interrogator is looking me up and down and

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checking whether I look fat and unhealthy, with a slight upturned lip of disgust.

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Look, I really don't know if lard is unhealthy as compared with vegetable oil or butter or

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peanut oil or some other poor substitute.

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I do know that when I fry with lard, as opposed to vegetable oil, there is more lard remaining

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in the fryer, from which I conclude that less is in the food.

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And don't even talk to me about that fake lard product called shortening.

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I also know that lard has a very high smoke point, so it is cleaner and makes less of

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a mess.

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Also, lard, which is nothing but rendered pig fat, has been a staple of the Western

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diet for many centuries.

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I see no reason why I must automatically adopt the widespread prejudice against it and regard

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it as a poor person food, nor do I trust what some government expert says.

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As regards dietitians, you can find one around who will endorse or condemn anything you want.

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And do I need to point out that Crisco has recently come under fire for its trans-fat

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content, a problem that Lard does not have?

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What I do find interesting is that the campaign against Lard began during and after World

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War II, when Lard was put on the list of rationed items in the United States and England.

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Every government intervention is an opportunity for some private company to come along with

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some substitute.

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Sure enough, this was when margarine and shortening began to be pushed on the American diet.

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Somehow, Butter made a solid comeback many decades later, but Lard somehow never did.

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I can only credit a very effective marketing campaign by the shortening producers.

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Are we going to let government's wartime central planners control our lives 70 years after

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the fact?

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I don't think so.

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Not in my case, anyway, regardless of what my fellow shoppers say.

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Sometimes, embracing a life of freedom involves taking risks and paying the price.

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You can have my lard when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.