"Goomba38" > wrote

> Nancy Young wrote:
>
>> Yeah, I've looked at a lot of bread recipes, I don't think it's
>> common here. The baker types will correct me if I'm wrong.
>> I don't mean, does someone have this one recipe for bread
>> that uses lard, I mean in general. Always seems to be butter.

> As a child growing up, my father told us about rendering lard each fall
> out in the yard over a big fire. They would pack it into crocks and such
> for later use. He fondly remembered his mother adding the cracklings to
> bread, and I'm sure if any fat was needed in her baking it was lard?

Wow, great story. My parents were city, no putting by of lard.
Imagine my surprise while living on a farm, they canned vegetables
themselves! Heh. I know I didn't make the connection that the two
pigs I would feed weren't there for their looks.

> I didn't grow up eating lard, and wasn't very hip to it until Kay Hartman
> wrote about rendering her own lard for her Mexican dinner one year. We
> discussed lard in detail and learned all about the reasons lard is *not*
> the evil fat some consider it. It is an ideal fat for pie crusts and
> nothing beats its flavor for tamales.

I don't know about anyone else, I'm so jaded by 'this is bad for you'
reports and the subsequent lab produced replacements. Having said
that, I do use Crisco on occasion.

nancy