For years, I’ve been hearing about the delicious merits of cracklings and how they can be used to make a crackling biscuit. Now with a fresh batch of cracklings on hand, I searched the Internet for the perfect recipe. There are so many. Some are made with yeast, not my idea of a biscuit, which is supposed to a quick bread, so no time to raise them with yeast. Some recipes called for leavening with eggs instead of baking powder or baking soda, not my preference. Many other permutations, including the addition of fresh cracked black pepper or cayenne. I will try adding one of those the next time. In the end, I mentally aggregated several recipes in relation to the proportion of dry ingredients and cracklings to milk for my first stab. My husband says he’d like a little more cracklings in them, so I will probably up the cracklings to 1½ cups next time. But overall, my first batch got thumbs up all around. Makes 6-12 biscuits, depending on the size of your cutter.


             2 cups white flour
             1 cup cracklings
             1 tsp. sea salt
             1 Tbsp. baking powder
             ¼ cup leaf lard
             2/3 cup whole milk


Add the cracklings to the flour and pulse in a blender until the cracklings are spread throughout the flour. Pour the flour/crackling mixture into a medium-sized bowl; add the sea salt and baking powder. Sift the dry ingredients  together and cut in the lard until it looks like cornmeal. Add the milk and stir. Quickly form the dough into a ball and knead lightly on a floured board. Pat dough 1/2-inchthick and cut with a 3-inch biscuit cutter. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 450ºF for 12 to 15 minutes.

These pig-shaped ginger cookies are very popular in Mexican bakeries throughout the Southwest. I found them in an Hispanic bakery in Albuquerque, NM. Unfortunately, they were using hydrogenated vegetable shortening instead of lard for the fat, which really makes no historical sense, especially for a pig-shaped cookie. You can find piloncillo in any Hispanic market in the United States and pig-shaped cookie cutters from many online sellers. These cookies don't spread out as they bake and are delicious with a tall glass of milk.

Main Ingredients

10 oz. piloncillo
1 cup water
2 pieces star anise
1 Mexican cinnamon stick
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
4 cups all-purpose white flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sea salt
¼ cup lard, preferably organic
¼ cup white sugar
For egg wash:
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water


Directions

Chop up the piloncillo a little bit and place in a small saucepan with 1 cup water, star anise, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and allow to cool completely, stirring the mixture as it cools so that the sugar dissolves.

Whisk together cloves, ginger, flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the lard and strain the piloncillo syrup in until the mixture comes together to form a dough. If too much liquid has evaporated from the syrup, you might need to add a bit more water. Divide the dough in half.

Working with half the mixture at a time, roll out to 1/3-inch thickness and cut out with a pig-shaped cookie cutter. Place the cookies to an ungreased baking sheet. Whisk egg with 1 Tbsp. water for egg wash; brush each cookie with the egg wash. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 400°F. Cool on wire racks. Makes 2 dozen.

Want to learn more: Listen to this fun NPR audio file below about Pati Jinich's search for piggy cookies in Mexico. Her recipes calls for butter, but when I communicated with her she confirmed that traditional recipes would have used lard. Enjoy listening and exploring!

Lard makes the most delicious and flaky piecrust. There is no substitute for this important fat. However, feel free to alter the type of flour, but be aware that low-gluten flours like spelt will not produce an elastic pie crust and thus be very hard to roll out. Also, the flour you choose will completely dictate the amount of water needed. Enjoy!  
 
2½ cups unbleached white flour, whole wheat pastry flour
      or a combination
1 tsp. sea salt  
½ cup organic lard
½-¾ cup cold still or sparkling water

Measure flour into a medium-sized bowl, add salt and stir. Add lard and use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the lard into pea-sized pieces until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. You can confidently add the first ½ cup of the water, but continue adding the rest ¼ cup water one tablespoon at a time until the dough starts to come together. Lightly knead with your hands to make a ball and then divide into two equal parts. Reshape into a ball and then flatten into a disc; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Makes two 10-inch pie crusts.

This is one of the recipes from the back of my collectible Iowana Decker Brand lard tin, which contained "open kettle rendered lard". It's a collectible recipe, too....back when people used lard in such quantities it was sold in 4- lb. tins.


Sift and measure 2 cups all purpose flour. Add 4 teaspoons baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt and resift. Add 1/4 cup lard and blend with 2 knives or pastry blender. Add 2/3 cup milk gradually. Turn onto floured board, knead lightly, only 1/2 minute, pat out to 3/4 inch thickness, cut and back in 425°F oven fro 12 to 15 minutes.

I made this tart for a Julia Child-themed potluck in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday on August 15, 2012, where everyone was asked to bring a homemade dish from one of her cookbooks or TV shows. This is from Season 4: Episode 7 of the French Chef entitled "Strawberry Tarts." In this show that originally appeared on WBGH (Boston) in 1965, she cites the inclusion of 3 Tbsp. of "shortening" in the ingredient list for the pastry dough for the tart shell. I assumed she meant LARD, not Crisco, so that's how I made it. (Julia was an early advocate of good fats). It turned out delicious! This is a very versatile dough that can be used for 10s of different kinds of desserts...so you might want to make a double batch.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 stick (4 oz.) butter
3 Tbsp. lard
1/3 cup ice water

Place the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Cut in the butter and lard with a pastry cutter or fork until you achieve pea-sized pieces of shortening. Add the water and pull the dough together with a fork. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times (not too much) to make a smoother dough. Roll out on the floured surface to make a dough shape of your choice about 1/8-inch thick. Paint 1 inch around the circumference with water to make the dough stick to itself when the edges are turned under 1 inch. Use a fork to decorate and seal the edge of the dough and then prick the bottom of the shell so it will not bubble up during baking. Bake at 420 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.

Julia waterproofs the shell with an apricot glaze (recipe below) before putting in a cream patisserie filling (recipe below) and decorating with raw strawberries. The finishing touch is to pour a little of the apricot glaze on top of the strawberries! Voila...and bon appetit!

Pastry cream

2 cups milk
6 egg yolks
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour or granulated flour like Wondra
1 tsp. real vanilla
1 1/2 Tbsp. rum
2 Tbsp butter

This pastry cream goes on top of the cooled tart shell. Heat milk until bubbles form at the edge of pan, but don't boil. Beat egg yolks and gradually add sugar; continue to beat until the mixture is thick and pale in color and forms a ribbon. Add the flour and incorporate. Gradually add the hot milk into the egg mixture while continuously beating so as not to scramble the eggs.

Pour the mixture into a heavy-bottomed clean saucepan and set on medium heat. Stir continuously with whisk until it boils and let continue boil for 2 minutes until thick. Add vanilla, rum and butter. Cool before using.

Waterproof apricot glaze

In order to keep the tart shell from getting soggy after adding the pastry cream, you will need to "waterproof" it with a mildly candied apricot glaze. This method works like a dream.

Choose a good-quality apricot jam, sieve out the peel. For each cup of jam, add 2 Tbsp. sugar and bring to a boil and let it boil as you stir until reaches 228 degrees, which is a soft stage candy. Let it slightly cool before brushing the jam onto the cooled tart shell.....then you can add 1/2-inch of the cream patisserie to the shell and then decorate with fruit. I like to use alternating rows of strawberries and blueberries...for a patriotic theme.

This recipe is from Sylvia Carter who did a great article on the comeback of lard for the Raleigh News-Observer. There are several Feather Spice Cake recipes on the Internet, but they do not contain lard. This recipe has been in her recipe file box for so long that she’s not sure where she got it.

2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/3 cup lard
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or mace
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk, divided


BEAT egg whites until frothy. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup of the sugar. Keep beating until very stiff and glossy.

STIR lard in another bowl to soften it; cream in 1 cup sugar. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg or mace and cloves. Add dry ingredients with 3/4 cup of the buttermilk. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute, scraping bottom and sides of bowl.

ADD remaining buttermilk and the egg yolks. Beat 1 minute, scraping.

GENTLY fold in whites mixture.

SCRAPE into 2 greased and floured 8-inch-round pans or a 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Cool. Fill and frost with seafoam frosting (Seven-Minute Frosting made with brown sugar) or caramel frosting.

Yield: 1 cake

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/01/21/3552428/lard-the-comeback-fat.html#storylink=cpy

Wiltshire is a major English pig-producing area. Lardy cake is famous in the region and showcases lard in an unexpected way. Equal amounts of lard, raisins or mixed fruit, and sugar are folded between layers of dough, similar to puff pastry. 

Don’t be squeamish about the amount of lard. It may seem like a lot, but when the cake comes together and is baked, the filling is partially absorbed into the dough, and what oozes out is filled with flavor.

You can use your favorite dough, but it must be elastic and pliable. I experimented with spelt, but it does not have enough gluten for this recipe. Traditionally, this cake is not made with cinnamon, but it reminded me of sticky buns, so I added some. Delicious!

Mix the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl and rub in the lard with clean hands or use a fork. Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the water, stirring to make pliable dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap and then a towel, set in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to a rectangle about 1/4 in thick, about 12x18 inches. Dot the surface with 1/3 of the lard, raisin and/or dried fruit and sugar mixture. Fold into three, bringing one end up and the other end down (or to the left and right) Seal the edge to trap the air and then give the dough a quarter turn. Repeat twice with the remaining lard, fruit and sugar. The goal is to create many layers.

Lightly butter a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, lightly shape the dough into an oval and place it in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and leave to rise until doubled in size (about 30 minutes). Score the top of the dough in a crisscross pattern and in an oven preheated to 400°F for about 30 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.

Leave to cool in the baking pan for about 10 minutes, which will allow the cake to soak up some of the sugar/lard mixture that will have run out. Eat when cool, or if you can’t wait, slightly cool.

 Contributed by Alexander Cowan, adapted from recipe by James Villas (Leite's Culinaria)

1/2 pound sliced lean applewood-smoked bacon (any good quality bacon)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cayenne pepper to taste
1/3 cup chilled lard
1/2 pound extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup milk

Method
1. In a large skillet, fry the bacon over moderate heat till crisp. Drain on paper towels and crumble finely.

2. Preheat the oven to 425°F (218°C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cayenne. Add the lard and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter till the mixture is mealy. Add the bacon, cheese, and milk and stir just till the dry ingredients are well moistened.

4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead 4 to 5 times—no more. Pat out the dough about 1/2 inch thick and cut out rounds with a 2-inch biscuit cutter. Pat the scraps together and cut out more rounds. Arrange the rounds on the prepared baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart and bake in the upper third of the oven till golden, 12 to 15 minutes.

5. Let cool, and then store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Makes about 18 biscuits.

On a recent trip to New Mexico, I visited Jane Butel, who owns a Southwestern cooking school near Albuquerque. She served my husband and I these great cookies and told us the story behind them. These anise-spiced cookies are the state cookie of New Mexico (does any other state have an official state cookie?), but they were first made in Mexico to celebrate the Mexican Army's victory over Napoleon's Army on May 5th....yep, that's what Cinco de Mayo is all about. And, that's why you use a fleur de lis-shaped cookie cutter!! 

1 1/2 cups lard, chilled
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp. sugar, divided
2 eggs
2 tsp. anise seeds
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
About 3 Tbsp. brandy (or apple juice or milk)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Beat lard and 1 cup sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Add eggs and anise seeds and beat further until very light and fluffy. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in four portions alternating with the brandy. Mix on the low speed of the mixer to combine the ingredients well after each addition to create a stiff dough.

Place the dough on a long piece of parchment paper. Fold the long end of the parchment paper over the dough and press until about one inch or slightly less in thickness. Refrigerate until chilled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll out dough between parchment paper to just under 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with flour dusted fleur de lis-shaped cookie cutter or 3-inch rounds. Combine the 3 remaining Tbsp. of sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl; sprinkle the mixture on top of the cookies or dip one side in the mixture.

Place cookies on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are firm. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

These jam-filled Bulgarian Christmas cookies are a child’s delight. In Bulgaria, they are traditionally made with lard. You can substitute butter if you wish, but using lard is the authentic Bulgarian way. Find the best lard you can, unhydrogentated and organic is best.

This recipe makes a beautifully pliable dough that doesn’t spread while baking, so you can place the cookies very close together on the baking sheet. Maslenki can be stored and enjoyed for up to a month (that is, if they last that long). The longer they stand, the softer they become.

3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup lard
4 cups white flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
*your favorite jam

Beat the eggs well and then add sugar; beat until light and foamy (about 5 minutes). Melt the lard, and when slightly cooled (so as not to cook the eggs), slowly add the lard to the egg/sugar mixture.

Combine the dry ingredients. Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg and lard mixture to create a firm dough. Divide into 3 balls. Roll out each ball until it is 1/4-inch thick. With a small glass or cookie cutter, cut circles. In half of the circles, punch a 3/8-inch hole in the center.

Bake  in an oven preheated to 375°F for 8-10 minutes. Remove and when completely cooled, spread the whole halves with jam. Top with the halves with holes. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

*I prefer a tart jam like red raspberry or apricot. Plum or rose jam is good, too.

Note: When I started making these cookies, I used the ring from a baby bottle (the piece that holds the nipple in place) to cut out the cookies. For the hole in the center, I used the top of a Crayola marker. After I while, I found some marvelous cookie cutters in an antique store that are perfect for the job.

This is a Fred Harvey recipe for Thanksgiving...and that contains lard. You will have to figure out the amounts. Who is Fred Harvey you ask? You can read all about him and his seminal influence on hospitality in the United States by reading Stephen Fried's book Appetite for America. If you would like to see the full Thanksgiving spread, cruise over to  http://www.stephenfried.com/blog/?p=1081

Peel cooked sweet potatoes, slice one-quarter inch thick and brown in hot lard. Alternate in buttered deep dish with slices of pineapple. Cover with maple syrup and bake in oven for a few minutes. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. (Can also substitute sliced banana for pineapple, or use both for Sweet Potatoes Sovereign; can also add walnuts or chestnuts.)