Rendering Lard

It's a four-letter word. And yes, I'm gonna say it. LARD. (Here's your visual: Ralphie in A Christmas Story...."Fuuuuuuuuuddddddgggggge!!!")
It feels so bad. But it tastes so good!
Whilst in my pursuit of the perfect biscuit, I realized I just had to use lard. In the words of Ruhlman, "Lard is an exquisite cooking medium and ingredient". From what I've heard, it's the best fat to use in pie dough and for my beloved biscuits.
But before you get completely disgusted, take heart. Lard is good for you! I know, it's crazy, right?
Lard is a rich source of Vitamin D, second only to cod liver oil. Lard also has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than butter!
Can you believe it?!? And it has none of those pesky trans-fats!

But finding good quality lard is easier said than done. Not even Whole Foods had it. However, they would save me pork fat trimmings if I called them early enough in the morning. You can buy lard in a can at Mexican grocery stores, but they have to make it shelf stable, so what do they add? You guessed it. Trans-fats (partially hydrogenated soybean oil). However, on a spur of the moment trip to Surfas (a chef's supply store in Culver City), I happened to stumble across frozen leaf lard. And it was so cheap!

Leaf lard is considered to be the best lard. It's the fat that is procured from around the kidneys of the pig. However, you can't just slice off a piece and add it to your dough. It has to be rendered into a malleable product, much like shortening.

So render it I did. I followed the Homesick Texan's directions. Basically all you do is chop up the lard into small pieces, put the lard into a pot, add a little water and turn the heat to medium low. Wait about an hour and a half (stirring occasionally) and what you'll get are cracklin's floating in liquid fat.

At this point, you strain the cracklin's from the liquid, refrigerate the liquid, and voila, there's your lard! I can't wait to try it out!