Lard

Lard is a semi-solid white fat made by rendering pig fatty tissue, setting it apart from tallow, which comes from cattle or sheep. It can be rendered through steaming, boiling, or dry heat. Depending on how it’s sourced and processed, lard can be nearly odorless and tasteless if done right. It’s high in saturated fatty acids and contains no trans fat. In stores, refined lard often comes in paper-wrapped blocks.

Many cuisines use lard as a cooking fat, shortening, or spread, similar to butter. It appears in savory dishes like sausages, pâtés, and fillings, and gives pastry a flaky texture when swapped for butter. Though vegetable oils have largely replaced it in Western cooking, many cooks and bakers still prefer lard for certain uses.

Historically, lard was a key staple wherever pork was important, with pig fat as prized as the meat. In the 19th century, North America and Europe used it much like butter, and it stayed about as popular into the early 20th century. During World War II, it was widely used as a butter substitute. As a by-product of pork production, lard was cheaper than most vegetable oils until the Industrial Revolution made those oils more common and affordable. Vegetable shortenings appeared in the early 1900s, offering solid fats for baking. Upton Sinclair’s novel *The Jungle*—though fiction—hurt lard’s reputation with a scene about men falling into rendering vats and being sold as lard.

By the late 20th century, lard was seen as less healthy than vegetable oils like olive and sunflower oil due to its saturated fat and cholesterol. Yet, weight for weight, lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than butter. Unhydrogenated lard has no trans fats. It was also viewed as a “poverty food.” In the 1990s and early 2000s, chefs and bakers rediscovered its culinary strengths, leading to a partial comeback among foodies. Negative attention on trans fats in partially hydrogenated vegetable shortenings helped drive this trend. Chef Rick Bayless is a notable advocate for lard in certain cooking. It also regained popularity in the United Kingdom among traditional British cuisine fans, causing a “lard crisis” in late 2004.

China produces the most lard, followed by Germany, Brazil, the United States, and Russia. Lard can come from any fatty part of the pig. The highest grade, leaf lard, comes from the visceral fat around the kidneys and loin; it has little pork flavor and is ideal for flaky pie crusts. Next is fatback, the hard subcutaneous fat on the pig’s back. The lowest grade comes from soft caul fat around digestive organs, though caul fat is often used directly for wrapping lean meats or in pâtés. Rendering can be wet (boiling or steaming fat, then skimming lard) or dry (heating fat without water, like frying bacon). Wet-rendered lard is neutral, light, and has a high smoke point; dry-rendered lard is browner, caramelized, and has a lower smoke point. Industrial lard mixes high- and low-quality fat, often hydrogenated for stability (with under 0.5 g trans fats per 13 g serving), and treated with bleaching agents, deodorizers, emulsifiers, and antioxidants like BHT. Untreated lard needs refrigeration. Consumers wanting higher quality seek artisanal sources or render their own leaf lard or fatback. A by-product of dry rendering is cracklings—deep-fried meat, skin, and membrane.

Lard is mostly fats, specifically triglycerides, which contain three fatty acids. It’s similar to tallow in composition. About 20% of lard is a triglyceride with palmitic acid on carbon 2 and oleic acid on carbons 1 and 3. A pig’s diet changes the fatty acid content and iodine value; peanut-fed hogs or acorn-fed pigs for Jamón ibérico yield different lard than maize-fed North American pigs.

Lard has a relatively high smoke point due to its saturated fatty acids, making it useful for cooking.