SC - Cooking in MOC

[Debra R. Poole]

Susan P Laing wrote:
> 
> Have everything now except for "Salted Lard" (the recipe suggests substituting
> Pancetta if necessary)

Hmmm. If the recipe suggests pancetta as a substitute, I assume what
they mean by salted lard is essentially a salt-cured, "green" bacon,
which you'd have to render somehow, or at least fry slices of to get
cooking fat. You _could_ use regular lard, which around here is usually
rendered industrially, with the result being sold in tubs or tins
(vegetable shortening, such as Crisco, is basically synthetic lard made
from vegetable oil), but I don't think this is what the recipe calls
for. 

Failing green bacon, how about salt pork? Petit salé? Salt fatback?
Possibly some kind of corned or brined pork product? If pancetta isn't
available, how about fatty prosciutto, which isn't too different from
pancetta in flavor? Failing all of those, maybe you could find a lightly
smoked bacon without a lot of sugar in the cure.
 
> As the only Lard available in my local store doesn't list any ingredients I'm
> assuming it's unsalted - any suggestions on what type of stores might carry the
> Salted variety? (or is it possible to add salt to ordinary lard?)

Yes, you could, but as I say, it wouldn't be the same. You'd get a dish
that tasted of both lard and salt, but not salted lard. One
consideration is that a lot of salt meats get a particular tang from
lactic fermentation, which you often find in air-dried sausages such as
Genoa salami, as well as corned beef. The likelihood is that
commercially rendered lard is unsalted. While salt does help preserve
fatty meats, fat rendered from such meat doesn't last very long; it has
a decreased smoke/burning point which makes it difficult to fry anything
in it for very long, and it can become rancid very quickly, which sound
slike something the manufacturers of commercial lard would prefer to avoid.

I think your best bet if you can't get green bacon or pancetta might be
some of the fattier portions of a prosciutto or other air-dried salt
ham, maybe Serrano, which is a Spanish version of prosciutto. It occurs
to me that Australia might be someplace where salt, air-dried hams might
have evolved; you're not especially heavily forested, are you?  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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