Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The Death of Lard



For years, a lot of people have gotten away from using lard in their cooking because it's "fattening" and just has to be bad for you, I'm sure. Everyone, that is, except the old timers and the people that know how to make really good biscuits and pie crust, they still use lard. But much wiser and 'healthier' people these days know they should never use a product that comes from a natural source, can be made easily, and is generally pretty cheap. NOOOO! We must use processed vegetable matter, chock full of partially hydrogenated oils. Let's call it Criscrap, shall we?

Having recently (and I don't know what took me so long) read the label of said Criscrap, I wanted to knock myself in the head for being so stupid. Here I am trying to avoid all kinds of unhealthy stuff and I'm using that stuff to season my skillets and make biscuits. Sheesh, am I stupid.

So, I decided to forgo my cultural bias and ignore my upbringing on the subject and buy a tub of good ol' fashioned lard. I went to my local "Wally-Morgan" supercenter and found a tub of the stuff. Just wondering if it might list what kind of animal the fat came from, I looked at the label. It read, "Contains lard and hydrogenated lard". I wanted to scream right then and there and spent the next 10 minutes, at least, muttering under my breath about the stupid stuff and fuming. So this morning I go to another locally owned store to buy my meat for the week (I won't buy it at that other place anymore. Do you KNOW what they put in that stuff? Yeecchhhh!). I asked the butcher (yeah, a real live butcher, go figure) if they had lard. "Yep," says he, "It's on the top shelf of that cooler over there." OH GREAT! That's what I was hoping for. I go check it out. Nooooo, say it isn't soooooo. More "Lard and hydrogenated Lard". CRAP! Do the powers that be wanna kill us all? MUST they put it in LARD!!!!!??????

Needless to say, I'm vexed. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Some day I'll have a pig of my own and have all the fat I want, but until then..... I guess I'll have to look harder for some place that has a real butcher where I can get some fat and make my own. I'm so put out.......

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