Update: This Giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Jill! Jill, please check your email for information on how to claim your prize.
Just a warning, friends: expect a lot of giveaways in the next several weeks. I spent last weekend at the Mother Earth News Fair in Puyallup and was more than happy to bring home the bacon for NW Edible readers in terms of great book giveaways, fair swag and more.
And when I say “bring home the bacon,” I’m not being entirely figurative.
GRIT Magazine, the rural living sister publication to Mother Earth News magazine, just published a cookbook of heritage American recipes, all featuring lard. I think I’ve made my feelings on lard pretty well known – go lard! – and GRIT was kind enough offer a copy of the cookbook to one lucky reader, along with a complimentary one-year/6-issue subscription to GRIT Magazine.
Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient is a bit different from a standard issue cookbook because the recipes are collected from GRIT readers, who have been submitting their family faves since the magazine started publication in 1882.
Because of this, the historic nature of many of the recipes (World War II Honey Cookies, for example) and the periodic anecdotes from readers included in recipe sidebars, the cookbook has a very homey feeling, like your 85 year old neighbor from Oklahoma is leaning over the fence to share her recipe for Plum Dumplings.
It’s a very charming cookbook, but it leans heavily to the sweet, with 5 of the 7 chapters focusing on baked goods. In a way this isn’t too surprising – lard is an excellent fat for baking, rendering everything from biscuits to piecrust tender and flakey in just the right proportion.
The remaining chapters, Vegetables and Main Dishes tend toward the fried and the proudly non-gourmet, with the notable exception of Beef Wellington. Recipes like Potato Loaf, Easter Ham Pie and Old Fashioned Green Beans are the kind of frugal comfort food your grandma would have made, if your grandma grew up on a farm in West Virginia. I looked everywhere and there wasn’t a single blood orange gastrique or galangal-scented garlic foam in the entire book.
The inclusion of the occasional can of Cream of Something Soup in the savory recipes is going to make some readers cheer Viva Americana! and others shy away from that particular brand of retro. To each their own. Personally, I’m looking forward to making the honey-sweetened Cherry Pie a bit later in the season.
I made the Homemade Flour Tortillas and they were easy to make and work with. Homebrew Husband declared them the best tortillas he’d ever had and even though I generally make corn tortillas, I’d have to agree these were excellent.
To enter to win your own copy of Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient and a one-year subscription to GRIT Magazine, leave a comment below telling me your favorite recipe or way to use lard.
Drawing open until Wednesday, June 13th, 9 PM PST. Winner will be notified by Friday, June 15th. Drawing open to US residents, only, please. You can tell me as many ways as you like to use lard, but only one entry per person will be counted in the drawing to win the cookbook and magazine subscription.
Good luck!
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I season all my cast iron with lard and use it as often as I can. Pie crust, and anything I cook in the cast iron, I use lard. Keeps it going, non-stick!! I also make outside treats for all the pretty birds that come around. It’s very good in the blocks I make for them in the winter. I would love the recipe for the tortillas. My mom used to make them with lard, but I haven’t found a recipe using it yet. Maybe now??? (hint, hint)
I have never used lard to cook. I have memories of watching my Nana cook with lard but I have no idea. 🙁
Im not too versed with using lard. So far I’ve only used it in my beans. If I win it would be a great opportunity to learn more ways to use it! **fingers crossed**
I use lard to make ginger cream cookies. It is a recipe my mom (RIP) has passed on to me. It is lard melted with water then add molasses and flour, then refrigerate over night. The next day roll it ourt and make cut outs or just slice it and bake it.
I don’t remember using lard. I also have been hearing about the benefits of using it, and would love to learn to use it. I also thank you for not making us jump through 5 hoops via facebook, twitter, etc. to enter. It’s great to find a book that can teach us newbies, and some sources.
I haven’t tried cooking with lard, but I love cooking with bacon grease and schmaltz! I would love to learn how to make real tortillas and see how they compare to the tortillas I make with vegetable shortening.
Hmm … So many great uses for lard. My favorite is probably pie crusts. But I do love making carnitas in it … kind of a pork confit.
Fish fry time! I remember 4th of July fish fries at my grandmother’s farm in Wisconsin. My grandfather had a cast iron pan that had to be three foot in dia, and he would cook directly on a charcoal bbq. He would fry northern pike and pan fish from Canada in lard. Yum!
I love traditional tortillas!!
I haven’t used it before either (hanging head in shame) – only bacon grease, which is outstanding for cooking just about any other breakfast food in. I would love to learn how though!
lard is made for pie crusts.
I was raised with lard on brown bread, instead of butter. I still like it better; no accounting for tastes formed in childhood!
mmmm….. I’d have to say my favorite lard recipe is yummy homemade buttermilk buscuits….
I’d love to try out more recipes though…
I’m just learning to cook and haven’t used lard before. However, I have a couple of great cooks who will help me with ideas for where to start!
I love to use lard in frying and pie crusts but only from my own butchered hogs for the same reasons that I raise my own pigs instead of purchasing factory farm animals.
I’ve been working on tortillas for a while … my corn ones are *terrible*. I’ve got an authentic recipe (I personally knew this mamecita!) that I’ve been playing with: 2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 Tbs LARD, 1 cup warm water = 12 tortillas.
I love to use it for pie crusts.
As a vegetarian, I have been too afraid to use lard in my cooking. But my live-in chef (aka my boyfriend) has no such qualms. I am learning to accept the usefulness of animal fat (I’m helping recycle, right?)
My #1 reason for loving lard – you can’t beat a piece of homemade [lard-filled] pie at a truck stop at midnight. Those truckers know how to eat!
I love lard for pie crusts, but it is also my go to fat for pan frying.
I use lard for pie crusts, seasoning my cast iron, frying eggs, skin salve. Its wonderful stuff!
I must say that rendered lard and strained bacon fat has been a staple in my family. My grand mother was from MS and my grandfather was from AR. They migrated to St. Louis and brought the good home gooking with them. Buttermilk biscuts, buttermilk cornbread, buttermilk pancakes, along with buttermilk pie crust were some of the things that she used lard for. My grandfather would used the strained bacon grease to make smothered potatoes, any type of beans, all of his greans and cabbage. I am starting to get hungry and homesick at the same time. I wonder if the lard and buttermilk enhanced each other?
I discovered the joy of lard a few years ago. There’s no tastier fat to fry an egg in than lard. And lard pie crusts are wonderful – they actually have flavor and aren’t just some bland pie-filler holder! I have a bunch of leaf fat in my freezer ready to render into lard, so would love to have a gander at this cookbook, and would be interested to check out Grit magazine, too. Thanks!
Biscuits! Sourdough biscuits. Mmmmm!
Pie crusts and biscuits… but looking to expand my repertoire!
i miss seeing the old school round fat strainer in a prominent place on the stove top or back of the range . . . i think my favorite use was in a batch of greens or beans, where you want to imply some meat but not necessarily use meat. As to fine lard, i think a primo use is in the making of Tamales.
Thanks for the chance to win an intriguing cookbook!
I love to put lard in my cookies YUM so bad for you 🙂
1) saute brussels sprouts in it, with a little minced garlic thrown in towards the end.
2) PIE CRUST!
3) biscuits (although I sometimes to use coconut oil for this)
4) Frying beignets
5) Searing short ribs before braising them
6) Making rue for gravy, and for mac & cheese
7) When grilling hamburgers from grass-fed beef, we usually put a pat of butter or LARD in the center of the patty. I prefer lard if we’re putting blue cheese on the burgers.
Mmmm…. lard….
Oddly enough, given the title of the book, my favorite way to use lard is in my Grandma O’Brian’s donut recipe. The whole family loves them and they just aren’t the same fried in Crisco. Gotta have the lard.
Soap!
I’ve only ever used it to make pies.
Pie crust! I’ve only ever made pie crust with my Nanny’s recipe using lard.
I use lard or bacon grease for lots of things, but I think my favorite is pan-fried potatoes.
Hi again! It’s me the newbie 🙂 So I have never cooked with lard so I don’t have a well of amazing recipes to share from. What I do have is a memory.
My granny, used Lard in her baking,well she used it for everything. The thing I remember the most is her tart cherry pies. I would sit on a stool and watch her with this big tub of ‘grease’ that’s what she called it. Anyway she was so comfortable with herself she would just stick her hand in that tub, eyeball it and call it good. What came out of that was the most amazing pie crust I have ever had. Will I ever be able to do it as well as my granny? Never, because her dough, had granny love in it. Good luck to who ever wins! 🙂
I have only used it to season my cast iron and to “taste-up” my dog’s feeding dish when he gets tired of the same old-same-old and rub the edge so he thinks he’s really getting something good! I have not ever baked with it though. Doesn’t it have a hint of bacon taste to it?
I use lard in flour tortillas, to saute, to fry (especially our family’s favorite dinner-crunchy tacos), and other baking. I saw someone else mention bean soup-what a great idea!
Pie crust with lard is the best!! at least if it is real lard, not the homogenized stuff they sell at the store now days, I won’t eat that.
Tortillas made with lard are the absolute best! So soft!
I’ve made a lard pie crust which was good, maybe I need to try another recipe. But daily I use lard to cook eggs. Yum!
I’ve lived in the south the majority of my life. Here is where my father’s people have lived for generations. My Aunt Gladys always dropped a large dollop of lard in everything she cooked. I like to use lard in biscuits. That is the extent of my use of lard while still trying to cook healthy.
My WV farm guy makes insanely wonderful biscuits with lard.
I would LOVE to win this book as I have American Guinea Hogs, which are supposedly a lard type pig. And one is going to the butcher fairly soon!
We just sent a beef to the butcher and I requested all the tallow. I will be overwhelmed with soap making next week but it will be fun in the meantime. Everyone is freaking
out about using soap with fat in it….until I point out that all good soaps have fat!
Thanks for all the good blight entries…I am going to have fun reading back through your work.
I was just reading my soapmaking book and the author distinguishes between soap – which is ALWAYS made by the reaction of fat (animal or vegetable) and lye – and detergent, which is a petroleum distillate. Detergents are increasingly common in “soaps” and various liquid cleaners. It’s fascinating to me that a nervousness about a product made with tallow would drive people to scrub with a product made with crude oil. Ah, marketing…
I love to fry stuff up in lard–potatoes, squash, okra, etc… Those tortillas sound amazing!
I just use lard as a substitute for oil or butter depending on the dish and who is eating it.
I’ve never used lard. It fascinates and scares me. i need guidance and wisdom, but my grandmother is not alive.
Pie crust is a given, but I use it mostly in my biscuits and dumplings. Fluffy and plump every time.
This is almost terrible to say …. But one of my favorite ways to use lard is to use it to quick stir fry some vegetables and serve them to my almost vegetarian husband (he pretty much only eats chicken breast – and any type of animal fat tends to completely gross him out). I don’t tell him what the secret ingredient is!
My grandmother makes the best cinnamon buns on earth with lard. I love eating Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at her house because she thinks margarine is the devil and refuses to use anything but lard and butter in her cooking and baking. I would love a chance to try some recipes! Thanks!
It’s essential to use lard in making home made tamales! Chicken are our favorite.
See if this counts. It is pig fat – yummy fat rendered from cooking bacon. Mom always saved it to saute onions. fried potatoes, or whatever. Also, boil fresh corn on the cob, and use bacon fat in place of butter. This is a favorite from Grandma’s: brown cut up bacon, remove from skillet, saute chopped onion, add cooked fresh snap beans and the bacon. Another: brown cut up bacon and onion, add apple cider vinegar, reheat, and pour over leaf lettuce from the garden – wilted lettuce. Here’s one of mine: brown cut up bacon, scoot to side of skillet, saute onion slivers, toss in baby organic spinach and just wilt, mix in a little pomegranite syrup, stir, serve, yum.
In my teen years we lived on a farm, butchered a pig and rendered a bunch of fat, so we tried to do our own pork rinds. The flavor was good, texture not so good, not a swimming success, and didn’t look much like the store bought version.
I have never cooked with Lard. But I am interested in giving it a try. I would like to learn to make tortillas and a good pie crust. We are thinking of raising a pig.
I do use bacon drippings for seasoning vegetables.
OK, so I’m with Kate: margarine is the devil.
Another OK, after reading through all the comments, I am wanting to trash the kitchen and cook up at least a dozen comment-inspired dishes. Anybody else feeling this way?