Why don't people cook with lard like they used to?

I assume it was replaced with hydrogenated oil that didn't need to be refrigerated. And yes the health issues, but people go to McDonald's and don't care so that can't be the whole reason.

Anyone know?

[Mickwish]

I believe it is called cholesterol.

Just because folks go to maccas and commit cholesterol induced suicide regularly, doesn't mean they want to commit the same at home.

And I think maccas regularly uses unsaturated oils for cooking. Doesn't make it healthy, but is better than cooking in saturated fats like lard.

I think. Not much of a dietician, I'm not. Just ask anyone who has seen me eat.

Cheers
Mick

PS Nice to see Surreal posting a bit again.

Well lard is nothing more than beef fat. Lots of people eat beef and the fat that is in it.. That's why I don't think it's a health thing so much..

I got my computer fixed and I'm on line with a blazing 24k connection

[Mickwish]

It's more about amounts of fat you end up consuming. Cooking in lard definitely raises the amount of saturated fats in the end product. If you buy choice cuts of meat, or cook in specific ways (eg grilling), the actual amount of saturated fats in the cooked meat you eat is quite small.

But if you fry potatoes in saturated fats, or bake them in pans containing saturated fats, then they absorb them, and you end up with huge amounts of saturated fats, which end up clogging all the arteries around your heart and stuff.

Supposedly, unsaturated fats aren't quite so artery clogging. Most of the stuff I've read suggests olive oil is one of the cleanest type of oils to use as far as artery-clogging fats goes. So Italian and Greek populations have less heart disease, apparently.

Cheers
Mick

I like the lard they put in the middle of Double Stuff Oreos.

That ER is hydrogenated fat and sugar. It might be worse than lard.


I ran across this,
From the Detroit Free Press

lard contains 46 percent monounsaturated fat, a healthier form of fat that's found at higher levels in olive and canola oils. Lard's saturated fat levels are 40 percent, making it lower in saturated fat than beef tallow, butter and palm oil.

Oh ya, the dreaded palm oil. But it's still in everything.

Research on trans-fatty acids that suggests lard substitutes like vegetable shortening may pose even more of a risk for developing heart disease

I've always been suspicious of hydrogenated oil, that's why I have to stir my peanut butter. That crap has like a 3 million year shelf life, similar to plutonioum.... (OK maybe a teensy weensy exaggeration...)

Fowler says that if you use a fat with flavor, you'll use less of it.

"With an animal fat there's an unctuousness," he says. "A little bit goes a long way. I can't help but believe in the long run it'll be healthier."

I had some at Thanksgiving to try my first pie crust with Lard.
It was interesting stuff, so delicate it melted the moment I touched it. It didn't make the pie crust better in the recipe I used.
But I was going to fry something the other day, it would have taken a tablespoon or so of cooking oil and gotten poor results.
I used about a teaspoon of lard instead. Wow! It was awesome the way it browned the beef quickly and with so little oil. I was impressed.

I used to cook pork rinds in 100% animal fat lard. Enough fat to clog an artery, but great stuff IMHO!

Hydro-generated . . . mono-satanated . . . fat is fat, and Double Stuff Oreos are good!

Isn't Crisco the same as lard?

It's that processed sugar they whip into that processed fat..

No Crisco is the other stuff Vegetable shortening. I'm scared of it. I mean that stuff doesn't melt. And while we're on it, or I am.... What in the heck is margarine? Maybe Crisco with yellow stuff in it?

OK, name some fatty vegetables I can't think of any.. where does vegetable fat come from??

I used to work in a place where they used to bring tanker trucks in with ANIMAL FAT to put into the "checkers" (you got fined a quarter for saying pellet ). In the winter they had to use a blow torch to heat up the pipes in the building when they were pumping it in so it would flow easier.

Yes, that's right, they got this ANIMAL FAT from RENDERING PLANTS that also get their animals from off the side of the road . . .
Anyway, this stuff was mixed into the feed that was then fed to the other animals, can anyone say Soilent Green? :ralph: