BENICIANS AND BEYOND,

Growing up in West Texas in the ’50s, you had to make due with the resources at hand. This past spring, Le Chef and I visited the old homestead and she was amazed at how I grew up — especially at the ranch — after speaking with friends and relatives. On the way back, she looked at me and said, “Ken, I never knew you grew up so poor.” I smiled and said, “I didn’t. We may not have had the fanciest home or the best equipment, and yes we might have been poor, but no one told us, so it was all right.”

I know what Le Chef was trying to say, as our life together has been worldwide, and I guess she couldn’t connect the dots from then to now. I told her that a person of good bones and attitude goes through life and no matter what degree of success he or she has, you should never forget your roots.

So, going back to my roots …

Mom was a master of making do, especially when it came to cooking at the Café or home. One of her specialties was making homemade lard. She had a recipe that produced a mild taste, and with her trick of adding a small amount of baking soda, it came out pure white.

Mom’s lard was not labor intensive, but did take some time. I figured a good batch took 6-8 hours. Anyone can make lard, and gosh to be, for a Californian to think of doing such is almost blasphemy. But it’s simple to make, so hold on and here’s Mom’s recipe.

Pork fat can be acquired for little or no cost, especially if you know a good butcher. Mom’s recipe would give her and a couple close neighbors about a year’s supply for cooking. It’s fairly simple and starts out with 6-7 pounds of pork fat and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.

Mom would start off with her largest Dutch oven and several Mason jars with airtight lids. She’d remove any skin and discard. The pork fat would be cut in strips or chunks no larger than 1/4 inch thick and dropped into the kettle. The kettle wouldn’t be filled more than half way, so as to prevent boil-over. With the burner turned down to a simmer, Mom would sprinkle in the baking soda and cover. She had a thermometer and wanted to keep the water around 250 degrees while stirring every so often for the next hour or so.

After an hour, Mom would use a spatter screen instead of the lid to allow as much water to evaporate as possible. Today there’s a fancy word for that: reduction. The screen not only allowed vapors to escape, but kept Mom and us kids from being burned by popping grease. She highly suggested no one put their face over the pot for inspection. However, if you did, you’d only do it once, as Mom stated many times.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Over the next 4 hours the liquid will turn clear and the cracklings (bits of meat left over) will float to the top. After the cracklings turn brown and wither up, remove them from the pot. Mom would stop the rendering process before the cracklings settled back down. Drain the cracklings on paper towels and they become great munchies as you finish the process.

Using a large ladle, Mom would skim off the lard into a large metal bowl, leaving any remaining water in the bottom of the kettle. After cooling (remember, this is hot enough to peel your skin), place the lard in a cheese cloth for straining. After cooling, it can be placed in the refrigerator for up to six months or frozen for a year.

Just the Facts Ma’am, Just the Facts

If Sergeant Friday were still alive, he’s ask Mom for the Facts of Lard. “Why on Earth would you want to make such a disgusting sounding thing”? Mom surely would have responded that if you love flakey pie crusts, biscuits and moist cornbread, you would consider keeping a jar or two in the fridge. Oh yes! And what about fried chicken or chicken fried steak?

Until recently, lard has just about been banned from all kitchens. Yes, it was the method of choice up to about 20 years ago. Now it’s turned out to be a culinary attribute. Lard has a lot going for it, such as containing less saturated fat than butter and being much higher in monounsaturated fats, which are said to decrease the risk of heat disease. Homemade lard contains none of the unhealthy trans fats you hear about and I also read it helps our skeleton absorb calcium and protects our liver from toxins and such.

I’m no doctor and I know you shouldn’t believe everything you read, especially off the Internet. This may be true or may not, but Mom had one great reason to use lard when cooking: It makes food such as freedom fries and fried chicken, to name a couple favorites, just taste marvelous. Game, set, match, lights out.

Gotta Git, but before I go:

“I found out in later years that we were poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it then.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower

ADIOS …

Ken Paulk is a Texas native and a Benicia resident.