Rendering lard is one job with two prizes. Cut pork fat into small cubes, start it in a pan with a splash of water, and keep the heat low. The fat melts out clear and clean, and the cubes shrink into golden crispy bits, the same lardons a good char kway teow man guards with his life. The whole thing takes under an hour and one pot.
The usual problem. The pan goes on high because melting looks slow. Ten minutes later the kitchen smells burnt, the lard is brown, and the bits are bitter on the outside and chewy in the middle. Lard punishes impatience. Heat is not the tool here. Time is.
The fat to start with
You want firm, white pork fat. Back fat is the classic: solid, clean tasting, and it renders into pale lard with bits that crisp evenly. Fat trimmed from belly or shoulder works too, and the little ribbons of meat in it make the bits tastier, though the lard comes out a shade darker. Skip anything soft, grey, or wet looking. Good lard starts as good fat.
If the fat is frozen, thaw it in the chiller first. Half frozen fat is actually the easiest to cut, so start cubing while it still has a little firmness in the middle.
The method, step by step
- Cut the fat into cubes of about 1 to 2cm. Even cubes matter more than small cubes. Uneven pieces finish at different times, and the small ones burn while the big ones are still pale.
- Put the cubes in a heavy pot or wok with a splash of water, just enough to wet the base, about half a cup for a kilo of fat.
- Set the heat low and leave it. The water steams the cubes and starts the fat melting gently. You will hear soft bubbling, not sizzling.
- Stir now and then. Once the water has cooked off, the sound changes to a light sizzle and the cubes start frying in their own fat.
- Keep the heat low and stir more often as the liquid fat rises. The cubes shrink, go from white to ivory, then start taking colour.
- Pull the bits out when they are light gold, not deep brown. They keep cooking in their own heat and darken a shade after they leave the pot.
- Strain the liquid fat and let the bits drain on a rack or paper. Salt the bits while they are hot.
Why the water trick works
Dry fat on a hot pan browns where it touches the metal before the middle of the cube has melted at all. That early browning is where the burnt taste comes from, and it stains the whole batch. The splash of water holds the pan at a gentle simmer while the fat starts to run, so nothing can scorch in the first stretch. By the time the water is gone, there is a pool of liquid fat doing the same protective job. You trade nothing for it. The water leaves completely, and the lard keeps its clean flavour.
Getting the crispy bits right
The bits are the part most people ruin, and always in the same direction: too far. A bit that looks perfectly brown in the pot is overdone on the plate. Light gold in the pot is the mark. Out of the pot, drained and salted, the bits crisp as they cool, and the centre stays airy instead of hard.
Two more habits help. First, do not crank the heat at the end to hurry the colour. The bits go from gold to bitter in about a minute. Second, if you rendered trimmings with meat in them, expect the meaty bits to colour faster, and start fishing those out early. Store the bits dry and uncovered until fully cool, then in a jar. They soften by the next day, and a minute back in a dry pan wakes them up.
Straining and storing the lard
Strain the warm fat through a fine sieve, or a sieve lined with muslin if you want it crystal clear, into a clean, dry jar. Any crumb left in the fat shortens its life, so strain properly. The lard is amber while warm and sets white and soft in the fridge. Cloudy when cold is normal, not a fault.
We keep ours in the chiller and use it within a month or two, and in the freezer for longer holds. Scoop with a dry spoon every time. If it ever smells sharp or soapy, it is past its best, and the next batch is an hour away.
Where the lard and the bits go
The lard is a frying fat with flavour: fried rice with a spoon of it tastes like the stall version, vegetables sweat in it beautifully, and noodles tossed with lard and soy sauce need almost nothing else. The bits are a finishing move. Scatter them over bak chor mee, fried rice, porridge, or blanched vegetables right before serving, so they land crunchy. A batch of fat gives you both, which is the quiet economics of the whole exercise.1
Start with fat worth rendering
Clean white pork fat, portioned for the freezer. One bag becomes a jar of lard and a bowl of crispy bits.
- The starting fat for this method, and rendered options if you would rather skip to the jar: our pork oil selection. ↩︎