Pastured Pork Fat (Ground)

What you’re getting 

Ground fat from pastured pigs

Packages are about 3 lbs

Raw. Frozen. Keep frozen or refrigerated.

The beauty of good lard

So, who would want raw pig fat? Anyone who has experienced cooking with pastured pork lard, that’s who. When pork fat has been melted and strained, a process called rendering, it becomes lard. But don’t think of the “lard” at the grocery stores—this is a beautiful white, creamy fat that is semi-solid at room temperature, heat stable, and mild-flavored. It’s the traditional fat for homemade tortillas and makes home-fried potatoes so good you’ll throw away your last bottle of vegetable oil.

How to render

As long as you have some good dish soap for the oily pot, rendering fat is no big deal. Thaw the fat in the fridge, then place it in a pot on your very lowest heat, or a slow cooker set to low. Allow the fat to melt over the course of a few hours, checking in on it every hour or so.  When the majority of the fat is melted, pour it through a fine-mesh strainer and let cool. 

I like to pour it into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and put it in the freezer until it hardens, when I can pull it out and cut it into chunks. I store these chunks in a labeled bag or container in the freezer, where they will keep indefinitely and be easily accessible for daily cooking.

For a more in-depth tutorial and more information about lard, check out How to Make Lard from Lisa at Farmhouse on Boone.

How we raise our pigs

Pigs in the pasture are some of the happiest animals in the world. They get to spend every day living their piggy dreams: rooting, munching, and napping. We supplement their wild diet of roots, nuts, and plants with a corn-free, soy-free feed mix based on peanut meal. When it’s time to harvest them, we send them to a local, state-inspected butcher for processing. For more information about our farm’s practices, check out Our Standards.