As fall descends on our little village hidden away up the North Thompson, it's time to shift from growing to harvesting and further to preserving. We grow a lot of our own food, and trade surplus for things we either don't or can't grow on StoneGround Farm. We can, freeze, dry, pickle, smoke and ferment all kinds of things.
We will soon have lamb and beef for the freezer, and to make some room I'm beginning to process the hog fat we have into lard. Last fall was a whole hog and we still have about half left. We always ask for most of the pig -- a couple of years ago I also got the feet and made Criubini which turned out to be far more trouble than I thought it worth. So we have some bags of fat, and today Mrs. Hippie pulled one out and suggested I do something with it. So I did...
Just after things got melty. I ground the fat through a 1/4-inch plate into the pot, then gradually heated it up. I keep the heat about medium-low and stir regularly. Otherwise I just let it cook until the cracklings are a nice tan-brown colour and the fat has reached around 250F. Then it's filtered into jars, cooled and then frozen until we need it. The dog thinks she'll get most of the cracklings, but I do like a nice baked potato with butter, sour cream and cracklings on top!
I also have some beef fat out there I need to render into tallow. Most of the tallow I make goes in shave soap, but we do occasionally use it when we want a harder fat.
Next year I'll be due again to take some slabs of pork fat and cure them with salt and spices for a nice long ferment, and then give them a cool smoke with alder before grinding and rendering a lovely smoked lard that I reserve for making frijoles refritos.
Today's haul was a small batch; four 500ml jars of lard and one of crackling. But there's no hurry.
"Secret's in the sauce!"
O.H.
We will soon have lamb and beef for the freezer, and to make some room I'm beginning to process the hog fat we have into lard. Last fall was a whole hog and we still have about half left. We always ask for most of the pig -- a couple of years ago I also got the feet and made Criubini which turned out to be far more trouble than I thought it worth. So we have some bags of fat, and today Mrs. Hippie pulled one out and suggested I do something with it. So I did...
Just after things got melty. I ground the fat through a 1/4-inch plate into the pot, then gradually heated it up. I keep the heat about medium-low and stir regularly. Otherwise I just let it cook until the cracklings are a nice tan-brown colour and the fat has reached around 250F. Then it's filtered into jars, cooled and then frozen until we need it. The dog thinks she'll get most of the cracklings, but I do like a nice baked potato with butter, sour cream and cracklings on top!
I also have some beef fat out there I need to render into tallow. Most of the tallow I make goes in shave soap, but we do occasionally use it when we want a harder fat.
Next year I'll be due again to take some slabs of pork fat and cure them with salt and spices for a nice long ferment, and then give them a cool smoke with alder before grinding and rendering a lovely smoked lard that I reserve for making frijoles refritos.
Today's haul was a small batch; four 500ml jars of lard and one of crackling. But there's no hurry.
"Secret's in the sauce!"
O.H.