How to make Crispy Pork Lard 猪油渣 | Render Pork Lard | Crispy Pork Crackling 烧肉脆皮

Pork lard has been used as a source of fat that has been used for hundreds of years. Rendering lard is a super simple process which comprises 3 steps: Dice, Melt and Strain.
There are three outcomes to this recipe: pork lard which can be used for frying noodles, rice, anything that requires high heat; crispy pork lard which is a condiment in many Malaysian/Singaporean/Chinese dishes (e.g., Char Kway Teow, Hokkien Mee, Bak Chor Mee, Wan Tan Mee, Wat Tan Hor etc.); and bonus, crispy pork crackling/rind (from the pork skin) - because I bought fat & skin together.
I know pork lard has a bad reputation as being bad for your health, but medical research (e.g., Maholtra et al., 2016) has confirmed that it is not as bad as you think, nor is it the root cause of cardiovascular disease. In an episode of Food Unwrapped, Jo Travers, a nutritionist from the British Dietetic Association, also revealed that it even contains "good" fats (monounsaturated fats) that can help lower "bad" cholesterol levels and is better than butter.
Surprisingly, a BBC (2018) report identified that pork lard provides the best balance of a person's daily nutritional needs. This report was based on the findings of Kim et al. (2015), who analysed more than 1,000 raw foods. They found that pork fat was ranked 8th in a list of 100 foods, with a nutritional score of 73. It is listed as a source of Vitamin B and minerals, and considered "more unsaturated and healthier than lamb or beef fat".
Anyway, enough about debunking myths about pork lard. This does not mean you use lard in all your cooking or garnish your food with lots of crispy pork lard - everything in moderation please 😅 When I fry noodles with pork lard, I mix it half/half with vegetable oil!
Here is the recipe below:
How to make crispy pork lard, render pork lard and crispy pork crackling
Ingredients
Pork fat from the butcher (In this video, I bought 1 kg of pork fat & skin. It ended up being 650g of fat and 350g of skin. Ideally, to save you time, you should purchase just pork fat. This is why I had to remove the skin from the fat and use it to make pork crackling/rind - be sustainable, no wastage!).
3 pandan (screwpine) leaves (OPTIONAL - it does not give your pork fat a pandan flavour, but it's just to reduce the pork smell during the rendering process)
Method
1. Cut fat into 1 inch strips and remove skin from the fat. Set the skin aside.
2. Dice the fat into small cubes (the smaller it is, the faster it will render, the more lard you will get).
3. Place it in a wok (cast iron pots/Dutch ovens are also great as they distribute heat evenly. When you render lard in cast iron, you are also seasoning the pot). Use low-medium heat.
4. Use a spatula to turn the cubes so that it is even. Once it begins melting, add twisted pandan leaves and make sure the fire is low.
5. Stir occasionally.
6. Continue cooking until they turn golden brown (it took me 1.5 hours for this video).
7. Remove crispy pork lard to a bowl/plate lined with a paper towel. Let it cool completely and store in air-tight container*. Use this as a condiment to give it that extra kick!
8. Transfer the liquid pork lard and sieve into clean stainless steel container. In its liquid state, the colour of the lard will be like cooking oil. Once it cools, transfer to a glass container. When it hardens, it will become whitish and texture like soft butter. Chill it in the fridge to prolong its shelf-life.
*Refrigerated crispy pork lard will eventually lose its crispiness. To make it crispy again, just heat it up in the oven again over low heat.
Crispy Pork Crackling
350g of leftover skin
1. Pre-heat oven to 200c (fan forced)
2. Score pork skin diagonally and cut into smaller strips
3. Rub with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt
4. Place rind-side up onto a pan
5. Roast for up to 40 minutes, reduce heat to 180c if needed (or until small bubbles form on surface and rind is golden).
6. Remove from oven and cool on tray
7. When completely cool, store in air tight container or Ziploc bag (sprinkle generously with salt and shake it).
8. Enjoy as snack
This entire recipe derived about
325ml pork lard
200g crispy pork lard
168g crispy pork crackling/rind (talk about auspicious number)
Song credit: Be Happy · AShamaluevMusic • Be Happy
References:
BBC (2018). The world’s most nutritious foods. www.bbc.com/future/article/20... Accessed: 12 July 2020
Kim, S., Sung, J., Foo, M., Jin, Y.S., & Kim, P. J. (2015). Uncovering the Nutritional Landscape of Food. PLOS ONE 10(3). e0127128. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone....
Malhotra, A., Redberg, R.F. & Meier, P. (2016). Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 51(15). dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-20...

[@RiccaRicca]

Yummmm

[@allynlaing1862]

Looks delicious Carol!

[@CarolTansKitchen]

Thanks moo 💕 Will you try making this one day?

[@allynlaing1862]

@@CarolTansKitchen yup, will do, I know someone else who will give it a shot!

[@CarolTansKitchen]

Allyn Laing it’s one of the ways to season your cast iron wok! 😄

[@upulaherath7204]

Super simple 👍👍😋😋

[@CarolTansKitchen]

Do you eat pork? 😅

[@upulaherath7204]

@@CarolTansKitchen yes I do, but not that way though,love to try it 🤭🤭🤭, hey I couldn't find that tumeric chicken video? It is not in your list?

[@CarolTansKitchen]

Ohh maybe people don’t really use pork fat to cook there 😅 plant based perhaps?
Here is the link to the turmeric chicken, it was somewhere lower in the list as I made it in 2018: czcams.com/video/Cbpf225dfAk/video.html
How’s corona over there? Everything ok?

[@upulaherath7204]

@@CarolTansKitchen thank you for the link, yes you are right, here people don't cook with pork fat, in fact eating pork is kinda unholy thing, people fear that the smell of pork fat summons demons, so we don't eat it that much, but I fell in love with it when I tasted it in China, here Carol, corona is under control, but not completely gone yet, thank you for your concern 👍👍❤️, how about over there?

[@CarolTansKitchen]

@@upulaherath7204 Wow didn't realise that pork had such a bad rep in SL! hahaha Corona here is growing!! More than 150 cases daily in Victoria, so we are in lockdown at the moment!

[@JenniferJJ6688]

😋😋😋😋

[@CarolTansKitchen]

🤭🤭🤭