Lard, the food that makes you happy.

I received an e-mail with this supposed ad from the 1950’s. The advertisement is reportedly a British spoof and not really a historic ad however, it did get me thinking about Lard. This past week I had the opportunity to try a cured delight, Lardo. Lardo is the back fat from a pig and that fat has been salt cured. Lard, as we think of it is pig fat which has been rendered. Both start with fat, however, each turn out to be completely different end products. Lard, when properly made can be an excellent fat product for pastries or for cooking in general. Lardo on the other hand is a rosemary herbed culinary delight, excellent on a crostini, or even on a nice slice of bread. I’ve read somewhere that it even has 40% less saturated fat than butter.

Now the slice of lardo that I had was not on bread, but held in my husbands hand melting away when I arrived at the end of my seminar. Nonetheless, it was more than delicious enough to make me decide that our next gloucestershire old spot that gets butchered will be turned into lardo along with the other charcuterie delights.

For a great fun read on lard, check out this blog.

clipped from www.pbase.com