Corona Cavern

[greenishfing]

I'm in Yorkshire also. What is wrong with lard? My 90 year old husband is a lover of lard and dripping. He says that in WW2 lard was far better than the axle grease that was marketed as margarine at the time. And I must agree that good dripping (hard to come by these days) is so, so tasty.

[Florence Fennel]

I still make my own pork and beef dripping greenishfing, love the brown at the bottom and it makes delicious gravy

[greenishfing]

I still make my own pork and beef dripping greenishfing, love the brown at the bottom and it makes delicious gravy

Yum, yum! Of course we also love olive oil and a Mediterranean diet.

[Snoop Puss]

So, your comments have sent me off looking for info about lard. Lots of saturated fat, so I won't swap olive oil for lard. But I will use it instead of butter in some recipes. So thanks.

[Containergardener]

My parents were manchester and lard /dripping was often on sandwiches.
I rarely make pastry now (OH would love a pie made daily) but I would use lard.

Lardarse is still a term used

[Snoop Puss]

Does lard work well in sweet pastry? Or is it better for savoury pies? Croissants and other pastries are usually made with lard, not butter, here, but I always like the butter croissants more.

I guess I'll just have to buy some and try.

[Florence Fennel]

I'd stick with butter for the croissants

[JanieB]

Lard can be replaced with white vegetable fat or suet. Lard being rendered pig fat and suet rendered beef fat. I presume there are Spanish vegans, Snoop. Try their fats. Experiment with part of the fat content being a tasteless oil such as vegetable or sunflower. I’ve certainly used oil instead of fat in cakes.

Lard is virtually tasteless and can be used in sweet recipes. I usually use half butter, half lard or white veg fat when making pastry.

[Nicos]

I just use butter for everything...whatever the recipe says

One day I'm sure it'll go very wrong

[burnie]

We use Rice Bran oil in everything, helps keep cholestrol levels down, doesn't change the taste of things and helps me keep the the Terry Wogan "racing snake" figure...............................................
I used to eat butter, lard and dripping, but stopped around 35 years ago.

[Snoop Puss]

I'm a bit like Nicos. Though I have started using our local olive oil (it's got a nice almondy perfume) for cakes recently.

Rice bran oil. That's new to me. Rice bran doesn't even sound like the kind of stuff that might contain oil!

Edited to add: Sorry, Janie B. Forgot to say thanks to you. I bought a big jar of coconut oil a while back. Before I read that in fact it's not very good for you. There are vegans in Spain and that's a good suggestion. Thanks.

[mothhawk]

Lowering the level of debate here: mothhawk, the book has arrived. There are biscuits in there I've never even heard of. So that will keep me busy. Thanks for the recommendation.

Will have to make a local adaptation: no such thing as block margarine here, so it'll be butter in all the recipes that call for marge.

And then there are those recipes that use lard. I have never in my life bought a block of lard. Just looking at the stuff feels dangerous! Anyway, looks like at some point I might just have to buy some.

I always use butter, don't have marg in the house. Butter works in lard recipes too, or sometimes instead of lard I use coconut oil which is solid at room temperature (though probably not in a Spanish summer!)

[mothhawk]

...Lard is virtually tasteless and can be used in sweet recipes. I usually use half butter, half lard or white veg fat when making pastry.

That's how I was taught to make pastry in Housecraft lessons at school in the 60's, the lard adds an extra crispness. Now I generally use all butter or half butter half coconut oil, which is flavourless and gives the same crispness.

I don't use vegetarian white fat because it is made from palm oil.

[Snoop Puss]

^Great info, thanks. Looks like not only will my biscuit repertoire be increasing but my pie crusts will be improving too.

I'll report back, Nicos...

[greenishfing]

I must say that although my husband (age 90), and very fit for his age loves lard and dripping, I do try to keep him healthy and lots of olive and rapeseed oil is also sneaked into his diet. He is a great lover of James Martin though (and his love of butter). All I can say is that a bit of what he fancies obviously does him good. All the health professionals he sees just tell him to keep up with the allotments. I believe that lots of fresh fruit and veg is the secret to a good diet.