Whether you’re renown pastry chef (and yes, that includes you if your family and friends can’t get enough of your baking!) or just enjoy some undercover home baking tests. Using leaf lard (unsaturated fat) instead of store bought processed lard, butter or shortening (mostly saturated) is the best way to get superior results – flakier pie crusts, more golden brown batter and fluffier doughnuts, to name a few. It’s also surprisingly easy to render your own from the basic fat you can get from us, your local processor or butcher. Bake away!

Recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s “Charcuterie”

1. Combine the fat and 1/4 cup of water in a saucepan and set it over a very low heat, uncovered, for several hours to render. The fat will liquefy and the water will evaporate, leaving pure fat. Don’t let the fat come to a boil or turn brown, or it will taste harsh.
2. Strain the fat through a sieve lined with cheesecloth. Let cool, then store covered in the refrigerator. The golden brown skin remaining in the cheesecloth can be saved to use as a flavoring for braised cabbage or sauteed potatoes.

Purchase Leaf Lard from our ‘pork & sausages’ section when we have it.

How to use leaf lard in pastry recipes (from SeriousSeats.com)