Christmas is for the Birds!...

Raising a hog is a great way to put food in your freezer... But I have come across one small problem. What on EARTH do I do with 69lbs of fat!?? Most people cannot even comprehend what 69lbs of fat looks like! To put it in perspective lets just say I could sculpt a beautiful black Labrador retriever out of it and put it in my front lawn as a decoration!

SO this year I am trying something new... I'm rendering Lard. Of course I had no clue on how to actually do this so I had to turn to my trusty Internet for answers. Oh the wonders of lard... I never knew it had so many fun uses! Candles, baking, frying, hand cream, soap... etc. But I wanted it for one thing- Winter bird food!! Did you know that when you purchase "suet" it is made from bovine fat, and the term "lard" is specifically from swine? Maybe I'm just a little behind on my terminology, but I never knew that! I had always referred to the greasy stuff you hang on your feeder in the winter as "Bird Suet".

Here is how rendering lard works:

First, I had to cut up the fat into small 1" pieces...Which is no small feat, it is frozen solid and slippery!

Next I added those pieces to my crock pot and added 1 1/2 cups of water...

My first perspective on making lard was WAY off base! I thought you heat it up, it all melts like butter, and within minutes you were good to go! Yeah right... Those fat hunks contain all of this weird "fibrous" material (kind of like if I whacked off my left thigh and tossed it in a pot to cook- It has substance).

Rendering lard takes FOREVER! It takes over 8 hours to make lard. Once it starts to slowly thaw and cook down it starts to look like and have the consistency of rubber fish! (Picture taken after 4 hours of cooking- It sure isn't getting anywhere fast!)

After 8 hours- You can see it is starting to really break down now! (OK, with the help of my fork stirring it! lol)

I'm sure you are *supposed* to cook it down further, but my patience grows thin and I can't wait any longer!!!! I then strained it through a cloth & metal strainer into a glass bowl...

The material that's left in the strainer makes for a high fat / protein meal for my outdoor barn cats!

Here's a picture of the liquefied product:

And after I refrigerate it overnight...

Next, I scraped it into a larger bowl and added- Bird seed, peanut butter, and oatmeal (instant- Apple flavor!)

Stir-

Then I took bailing twine from my hay bales and made string loops to hold the mixture...

Next, I put on rubber gloves to ball up the mixture. I found that using my bare hands just doesn't work. Lard has such a low melting point, I cannot ball it up with my bare hands, it just turns into a gloppy gooey mess! The gloves make it so the heat of my hands doesn't interfere as much. Besides, who wants that greasy crap all over your hands!? lol!

I don't have a picture of me actually "making" the balls- but I'm sure you can figure it out! :) There was NO Way I was going to get my good Canon D20 all covered in lard!

Here is your final result- I then place them in the freezer to harden. (I would just put them on my covered porch to harden, but I'm thinking my cats would eat them!)

And here is the finished product in action! Talk about a *lot* of work for an item you can purchase this time of year for roughly around a buck a piece. But hey, what else would I do with all of that fat?! Each ball lasts roughly 3 weeks.

Merry Christmas Everyone! :)

Momma Farmer