20 July 2011

And you thought you were hardcore

Recently I wished to express my sympathy to a church lady who had been subjected to suffering at the hands of sinful men: her doctor hassled her so long about something at a morning appointment that she missed being able to get biscuits from Hardee's. (This lady emails a report to interested parties after each of her chemo treatments. The reports are always hilarious, and usually include what she ate on the way home. She would be the best blogger ever.) She affirmed that this treatment had been egregious and went on to tell me that although Hardee's has the best biscuits, "the lard--

[here I begin nodding like the know-it-all I am, expecting a comment on the inferiority of shortening or butter to lard]

"well, you sure can tell the difference between what you get at the store and home-rendered."

Right.

Sellout.

10 comments:

Melrose said...

I'm new to the whole world of fresh vs. store bought lard but I'm hoping to get enough venison lard this fall from my husband's hunting to make a big batch of soap!

Rebekah said...

I think it's tallow from venison, isn't it? My MIL and I did lye soap a few years ago and I'm STILL using it--awesome yield. But that was a nice big chunk of beef lard from the butcher. I've got absolutely nothing on rendering.

Anonymous said...

The picture, that's pork lard

Consecutive Odds said...

Maybe it is just me, but the first thing I thought was, "That lady has a future in wine, beer, or tea tasting..."

Rebekah said...

Hey, some anonymous person left a comment to the effect of "Don't that say cerdo, white girl?" and it got lost on the internets (I know this happened with another anonymous comment recently and I don't know why it happens). Anyway, this is important and concerns me. I can't keep my fats straight--which one is suet and which one is lard? Deer tallow and bear grease, though, right?

Dawn said...

Suet leads to tallow leads to candles. See?

I think just about any creature can provide a kitchen with suet and its corresponding tallow, but I think (therefore . . .) suet and tallow are generally connected to beef, while lard is pure pork.

But what none of you know is that vegetable shortening is rendered from the stomach fat of Velveeta.

Melrose said...

OH man I have so much to learn.

Rebekah, I started soap making about 4 years ago. Since then my family has never used commercial soap until about 5 months ago when we ran out of my most recent batch (which I made a year ago) and our store in town stopped carrying lye. I can easily get more but have just been lazy after having access to it right down the street. So now that we're back in our parsonage I will hopefully get my act together and make more. Anyhow, I love real soap. That detergent stuff dries out my skin. :p

Rebekah said...

Gauntlets, truly you have a dizzying intellect.

Melrose, you know I can't get as excited about these things as you do, but I have liked not having to buy soap. Visitors to our house don't like it. Not sudsy.

Melrose said...

Rebekah, that's because I was so bored when I graduated and was expecting my first child that I dove head first into the world of crunchy land. I had time then :) And this is why I since have let my soap making days slip...now it's a chore not something I do for fun.

That being said: coconut oil! The suds are awesome! Just make sure you use enough. I use about 1/3 to 1/2 the total amt of fat as coconut oil. And it can be the cheap stuff you can find in the baking aisle at Walmart, though I bet if you get the super cold pressed organic whatever it might make even better suds...or at least make the soap smell cool because the cold pressed stuff actually smells like coconut.

Leah said...

Recently a "health nut" yoga instructor told my husband that you should never eat vegetables without butter on them because the fat actually helps you absorb the nutrients. Also , he said that bacon grease was the best thing to cook food in (or olive oil). (Throw out your vegetable oils, he said). And this from a hardcore fitness health guru guy. Who'da thunk?

(I've had a whole soap making kit sitting in my closet for about two years now. We'll see.)