processhead We’ve been using you recently rendered lard in various ways from taking the leaf lard to make pumpkin pie crust on Thanksgiving, oiling the skillet for frying eggs, and greasing a pan before baking. The flavor and texture that the pork lard imparts is far better than any coconut, olive, or veg oil I’ve had yet.

Yes, hard to beat it. Lard gets a bad rap these days, largely undeserved.

Tamales have turned out to be one of my biggest sellers. Guess it it just too much work for many people.

Not sure about other parts of the nation, but here in Southeast Texas, it is a major player.

For so many people, it is what a Christmas meal is all about.

Chef Pork fat is extremely hard to find. Confinement raised hogs have been bred to have very little exterior fat.

Agree. Processors have figured out new and creative ways to incorporate fat into other marketable products.

Years ago, there was a bigger market for rendered lard which helped use up the surplus fat. That market has diminished so pork fat ends up in other value-added products.

For the customers I cater to, % fat is not the real issue, it is the taste. My customers don’t care about anything except how does it taste. Many just grill it. At farmer’s markets, one sample of a slice of my sausage usually results in “I’ll take 2 pounds of it”.

Works for me…

The district meat supervisor would come in occasionally with a tester to check our burger. The tester was very primitive and was in a briefcase, the same tester the state used to do spot checking. It consisted of a small hot plate over a funnel that dripped into a test tube. After a 2 oz sample was cooked down you slid a gauge down the test tube to where the liquid fat had separated from the water and this would tell you the fat percentage.

If you had done the morning grind and you saw the supervisor coming back with that briefcase in hand it definitely increased your pucker factor. My grind got checked one day and one of my grinds was 2% too fat over the label. The supervisor was getting ready to chew me out and I asked him how he judged his grind when he was a meat cutter. He said well by how it looked. Before I could respond he smiled and said I honestly thought your grind was lean enough but I would prefer that you err on the side of caution. Of course after he left the meat department manager who was only worried about his bottom line told me you better not ever make it too lean.

As mentioned by someone we use it for feeding the birds and chickens. My sister in-law renders it down to make soap. I have thought about giving the use of caul fat a try in roasting or maybe frying.

processhead I Happened to get a Univex Fat Analyzer a few years ago on eBay for $35.00. They sell new for nearly $800.00 with shipping.

While it would be hard for the home processor to justify this kind expense, if you have the opportunity to get a cheap used one like I was fortunate enough to find, I would recommend go for it.

The variability within a cut and between packers is enormous. I used to always follow my recipes, but sometimes my sausage was dry and sometimes too fatty. I can now adjust after a quick 5 minute test.

Some guys out there may be better at estimating the actual fat content, I’m not that good. Maybe their suppliers are more consistent than mine were. What I was producing was from 18 to 34 %.

What I buy lately seems to be as variable if not more so. At least I have the opportunity to calculate just what I need to get a consistent product.

That would be a great tool to have for making a consistent commercial product. No question, a pork butt can be trimmed with a huge amount of variation in fat cap amount and intermuscular fat can vary too.
To some degree, I do my meat blocks the old fashioned way, I judge the lean to fat by eye after grinding, which is less than ideal but also better than nothing.

While it would be hard for the home processor to justify this kind expense, if you have the opportunity to get a cheap used one like I was fortunate enough to find, I would recommend go for it.

The variability within a cut and between packers is enormous. I used to always follow my recipes, but sometimes my sausage was dry and sometimes too fatty. I can now adjust after a quick 5 minute test.

Some guys out there may be better at estimating the actual fat content, I’m not that good. Maybe their suppliers are more consistent than mine were. What I was producing was from 18 to 34 %.

What I buy lately seems to be as variable if not more so. At least I have the opportunity to calculate just what I need to get a consistent product.