I had never cooked with lard before. It just seemed gross to me. Plus, as a saturated fat it was on the list of things I didn't need to add to my already saturated diet.
However, my elderly, ill mother specifically requested that I make one of her favorite summer meals: pasties (Cornish meat pie)...with lard. How could I deny her? In fact, she told my sister she wouldn't even come over and eat them UNLESS I made them with lard.
So I went in search of lard. I emailed my favorite meat website (heritagefoodsusa.com) to see if they sold it. They did, but wouldn't have any available till later in the week. Plus, they have what's called "leaf lard," which basically means it's fat fresh from the pig. When I got it, I would have to "render" it by cooking it down to its liquid form. And there wasn't enough time for that.
So then I went to Dietrich's Meats, a famous butcher in these parts. They had plenty of lard--in 1-pound, 2-pound, 5-pound, or 5-gallon containers! They don't feed their pigs antibiotics or hormones, and they raise them locally, so I bought some. (I also bought some ground beef, and watched in horror as the lady dug her bare hands into the ground beef, then without washing her hands touched my buffalo Lebanon baloney order, and then handled my cash, since they don't take credit. I just kept looking at her and thinking, well, she's still alive after all these years, so I guess I'll live if I eat this stuff.)
So my mother and I made the dough with lard. It was so soft! We filled the dough with ground beef, potatoes, onions, salt and pepper, and...butter! My sisters came, and all my daughters were there. I ran out of white flour, so I made a few extras with King Arthur's "White Whole Wheat Flour," which is really good (and of course everything was organic).
Suffice it to say, the lard made the pasties absolutely, positively delicious--and so much better than any dough I had ever made before. It was savory, crispy, and yummiful! My mother was happy. I sent her home with some leftovers. My sister's boyfriend remarked that the lard even made whole wheat taste good.
I think lard is due for a comeback. There must be some health benefit to it. Of course, only in moderation--maybe once a summer. And maybe I'll use it to make my pie dough this holiday season. But today is a beautiful summer day, and I'm not going to think about that yet!
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Forget pig farming and cr.uelty.
It's all about the taste.
Put several pats of butter on top of the meat. Bring the other half of the pie round over the top of the meat, smoothing the dough so it's not gaping over the meat. You don't want to have a lot of space between meat and dough. You should end up with a half-moon. (A lot of this isn't an exact science. It depends on how big you want your pasties. Some pasties end up weighing 1 pound, so if you wanted one that size, you'd have to adjust the ratio of pie dough to meat.)
What I did was to then cut off excess dough from the edges of the half-circle, leaving about an inch gap between meat and the end of the dough. I then would dampen the edge of the dough with a tad of water (usually using just my fingertips), then I'd lightly press the top and bottom crusts, twisting the dough to create a kind of braided look.
I'd cut maybe three diagonal slits in the top crust to let steam and extra juices out, and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees, or moderately hot oven.
Eat hot with pasty sauce (commonly referred to as "catchup"). Those who use gravy with pasties are tolerated, kind of like odd Auntie Harriet.
I made pasties this way:
to make the crust, I made it as regular pie dough. 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, about 2/3 cup cold lard, about 1/4 cup as cold water as you can get. Mix the flour and salt together, chop in the cold lard until it's about cornmeal size pieces, add water a little at a time, so that it's not sticky but not too dry. The secret is in not letting the dough get warm. For pasties, I did handle it more than what was called for in fruit pie recipes, because you want to be able to pick the pie up in your hands to eat, so it has to be a bit tougher.
Take your meat--I usually use ground beef--mix it with chopped onions, about 1/2 to 1 tsp salt per pound of meat (I don't use a lot of salt), pepper to taste. Add whatever impurities (just to add fuel to the debate lol) like chopped up carrots, parsley, or rutabagas that you may want, and set side for assembly. I often chopped up some carrot.
take a chunk of pie dough--maybe 1/2 cup, depending on how big you want your pastie, and roll it out into a circle. Place a quarter of the meat (or however much you want) onto one half of the circle, and kind of squash it long and flat.
I was going into the Navajo reservation a few weeks later and saw a Navajo woman selling pastries out of her minivan. I stopped and she had prune pie and sugar cookies. I took a big bite of my prune pie and said "lard?" and she said "yes" and we both died laughing. My parents lived into their 90s and ate lard.
I think I'm going to get off the computer and make a pie crust with lard....
My grandmother made the flakiest, most delicious pie crusts. I have never had any like hers, though I tried very hard for years to make them.
She also made fried chicken that I have never been able to duplicate, even though I make the same coating.
And now I know why.
Please do give us the recipe for the pasties. And I will go on a lard hunt.
Your article has really made me miss my grandma and all those family get-togethers.
Thank you.
No thanks.
I don't ordinarily criticize people for not being vegetarians. Generally speaking, I don't care. But to wax poetic about pig fat is disgusting to me.
I don't care if it tastes good. If an animal died for it, I can't pretend to admire it.
Be careful about supermarket lard. Some of it is also hydrogenated.
It was all about balance. They also were farmers, worked hard, and ate their veggies.
By the way--pasties are the UP state food, being where the iron ore mines were. The early miners came from Cornwall to work there, and the meat pies were what they'd take to eat. There are long debates as to whether rutabaga or carrots detract from the "purity" of the pie. Really. They're an art form.