Pantry Staples

Lard

Lard's reputation in American baking centers on pie crust, but its actual culinary range runs much wider — traditional in tamale masa, used to fry a proper Southern biscuit or doughnut, worked into a classic British mince pie pastry, and a common frying fat in Mexican and Southern US cooking well beyond pastry alone.

Not all lard on a store shelf is the same product: leaf lard, rendered from the fat around a pig's kidneys, is the mildest and most prized for pastry, while standard lard rendered from fat throughout the animal carries a slightly more noticeable pork flavor better suited to savory frying than a delicate crust.

Commercial, shelf-stable lard sold in a box at most grocery stores is typically hydrogenated for a longer shelf life, which changes both its texture and flavor compared to traditionally rendered lard — bakers chasing the most authentic flaky-crust result often seek out non-hydrogenated lard from a butcher or specialty source instead.

Home-rendering lard from pork fat trimmings, a once-common kitchen practice, has seen a modest revival alongside broader interest in traditional and nose-to-tail cooking — a slow, low-heat render produces a cleaner-tasting fat than the quicker commercial process most packaged lard goes through.

In many Mexican and Central American kitchens, lard remains the traditional fat for frying refried beans and for the masa used in tamales, where its flavor is considered part of the dish's authentic character rather than simply a neutral cooking medium.

Historically, lard was rendered and stored in large quantities as a household staple well before refrigeration was common, since properly rendered lard, kept cool and sealed, has a genuinely long shelf life compared to many other traditional fats available at the time.

"Larding," a related but distinct technique where strips of fat are threaded through a lean cut of meat with a special needle before roasting, shares lard's name but is a separate culinary practice focused on basting a roast from the inside rather than using lard as a baking or frying fat.

Chicharrón, fried pork skin, and the crispy browned bits left in the pan after rendering fresh lard (sometimes called cracklings) are traditional byproducts of home lard-making, often salted and eaten on their own rather than discarded, a use that turns the rendering process into two food products instead of just one.

Some older Southern and Appalachian biscuit recipes specifically call for lard rather than butter or shortening, valued for a savory depth those other fats don't bring along with the flakiness — a regional preference that predates butter and shortening becoming the more commonly assumed baking fats in most modern American recipes.