Made lard and crunchies

[Blue_Egg_Farmer]

So this was our very first year of raising swine on the Blue Egg Farm. It wasn’t so bad and next spring I think I would try it again, though at times earlier in the year I was afraid of the piggies. I was told some scary stories about how pigs are omnivores and eat anything, then about someone kinda local who got his leg bitten pretty badly and needed over 100 stitches, that’s about when I notice our pigs growing small tusks and trying to “taste” my arms and legs when I was in with them, but fortunately I got over my fear…kinda...as long as I was outside with the piggies they were more interested in rolling through the mud instead of chasing me down.

The big day came last weekend, the butcher came and picked up the hogs and magically transformed them into frozen roasts and steaks which I picked up Friday. Our butcher said my son did a great job raising them over the summer, that they were the perfect weight and cut beautifully. It is amazing how we could go from a tamsworth and yorkshire hog to food.

I cooked a couple loin chops, they seemed to be the best we ever had, but we could just be a bit partial. With all the great meat I also asked to get back the fat, so yesterday I rendered about 7 pounds of the raw fat (like in the top of the picture) and in about 2 hours I had several tins of lard and a big bowl of crunchies. The picture I have linked above shows the big bowl of crunchies and the tins of lard in several states of cooling. The hottest tins are still yellowish liquid, as it gets cooler and more solid it turns white.

I want to try to make something with the crunchies, any ideas? They are disappearing quick, Already munchers are walking through the kitchen grabbing handfuls. As for the lard, today I will try to make a pie, got to go out and shake my mcIntosh and wine sap trees now to see what I get. See ya later.

Edited October 1, 2006 by Blue_Egg_Farmer (log)

[Sunny Simmons Steincamp]

I'm jealous. I haven't been able to talk my husband into letting me try raising some pigs on our homestead. He's heard the horror stories (supposedly once a pig gets a taste of human flesh, they become a real menace,) and we had friends whose pig pen was apparently a quagmire of mud and muck and hard to clean... another had ones whose pigs kept getting out... so you can see how he's reticent. I tend to think that intelligent design in building their pens would take care of most all those problems, but I'm still working on him.

The crunchies brought back memories of my grandmother's. She used them like some folks use those French's fried onions, you know... on top of casseroles and stuff? I don't make many casseroles, but you might find other, similar uses for them. Me, I'd probably just scarf down that whole bowl in no time...

[BarbaraY]

Make cracklin' bread. Just toss a handful into a batch of not sweet corn bread.

My neighbor used to raise pigs and our kids used to go ride them. They never got hurt but they weren't very nice smelling.

We used to raise one pig for meat each year and it does taste better than commercial.

Edited October 1, 2006 by BarbaraY (log)

[ludja]

Congrats on your lard and cracklings stash!

Here is an earlier thread on some uses for cracklings: click

[andiesenji]

Great description of your experiences. I will second the motion for adding cracklins to cornbread.

Cracklins (or cracklings, if you will) are also good added to beans of any variety - green snap beans, or green beans with "shellies", butter beans, kidney beans or great northerns or navy, etc., etc.

Also good on/in waffles. First pour the waffle batter onto the iron, sprinkle on the cracklins and close the top.

ditto pancakes or flapjacks, pour batter on griddle, allow to cook a bit then sprinkle on the cracklins and flip them over.

One of my cousins (long, long ago when we were children) used to take a small dish of cracklins, peel a banana and dip the end of the banana into the cracklins, take a bite and so on.

It never tempted me to try it, but I was reminded of it years later when I heard of some of Elvis' odd eating habits.

Oh! I forgot, toss some into a tomato salad. Lovely!

Edited October 1, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[Blue_Egg_Farmer]

Well so far I have made an apple pie using the lard in the crust. Suprisingly it came out much better than any of my other pie making attempts!!! ( I am the most uncoodinated non cooking type person born) Boy, what a little lard can do, flaky / tender and completely edible came out the crust!!

Next will be the cornbread with crunchies, I can't wait!

And Sunny, do not be jealous, they did make a lot of dirt, and did get out and terrorize the horses and chickens several time, they were smart and strong, they could easily push down or dig under any fencing.

When I moved them into a stall during a thunderstorm they dug up the floor and ate the wood walls, they tried to knock me down and I swear would have eaten me.

During all the trouble I would say never again, we will just stick with our poultry and beef cattle but now that they are safely in the freezer and have been proclaimed the best tasting pork we have ever had ( my chef buddy even said the loin chops I gave him were better than the berkshire pork he orders!) and we have a better understanding of how to handle piggies ( definitely not like raising beef) I will devise a better plan for raising these critters.

[Andrew Fenton]

So this was our very first year of raising swine on the Blue Egg Farm. It wasn’t so bad and next spring I think I would try it again, though at times earlier in the year I was afraid of the piggies. I was told some scary stories about how pigs are omnivores and eat anything, then about someone kinda local who got his leg bitten pretty badly and needed over 100 stitches, that’s about when I notice our pigs growing small tusks and trying to “taste” my arms and legs when I was in with them, but fortunately I got over my fear…kinda...as long as I was outside with the piggies they were more interested in rolling through the mud instead of chasing me down.

Believe me when I tell you not to watch Deadwood.

Other than that, great stories; it sounds like you've really earned your cracklings. Kudos!