In Praise of Lard
The use of lard in cooking is slowly being rehabilitated, but the cultural shock of the stuff hasn't diminished in the slightest.
There I was at the store, buying just two products, lard and salt.
They sat on the black conveyor belt, awaiting checkout at the store.
The guy behind me, something like this happens every time I buy lard, asked incredulously,
So, my routine lecture began.
I use lard for making biscuits.
Sometimes I fry those lard biscuits in lard, and these I call hot puffs and eat them with
honey.
Lard is essential for pie crusts.
It makes great chocolate chip cookies.
I can't imagine frying potatoes in anything else.
It is excellent for chicken.
Pancakes and waffles are never better than when made with lard.
Popcorn not fried in lard, air pop, please, is noticeably inferior.
Cakes are wonderful with lard.
The refried beans you eat are not authentic if they do not include lard.
All that amounts to nearly a bucket per week of lard use, I admit it.
All the while, as I'm giving this list, the interrogator is looking me up and down and
checking whether I look fat and unhealthy, with a slight upturned lip of disgust.
Look, I really don't know if lard is unhealthy as compared with vegetable oil or butter or
peanut oil or some other poor substitute.
I do know that when I fry with lard, as opposed to vegetable oil, there is more lard remaining
in the fryer, from which I conclude that less is in the food.
And don't even talk to me about that fake lard product called shortening.
I also know that lard has a very high smoke point, so it is cleaner and makes less of
a mess.
Also, lard, which is nothing but rendered pig fat, has been a staple of the Western
diet for many centuries.
I see no reason why I must automatically adopt the widespread prejudice against it and regard
it as a poor person food, nor do I trust what some government expert says.
As regards dietitians, you can find one around who will endorse or condemn anything you want.
And do I need to point out that Crisco has recently come under fire for its trans-fat
content, a problem that Lard does not have?
What I do find interesting is that the campaign against Lard began during and after World
War II, when Lard was put on the list of rationed items in the United States and England.
Every government intervention is an opportunity for some private company to come along with
some substitute.
Sure enough, this was when margarine and shortening began to be pushed on the American diet.
Somehow, Butter made a solid comeback many decades later, but Lard somehow never did.
I can only credit a very effective marketing campaign by the shortening producers.
Are we going to let government's wartime central planners control our lives 70 years after
the fact?
I don't think so.
Not in my case, anyway, regardless of what my fellow shoppers say.
Sometimes, embracing a life of freedom involves taking risks and paying the price.
You can have my lard when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.