Is Cooking With Lard Healthy?

Haven’t heard? Butter is back. Grass-fed, organic, GMO-free, it’s the newest health food for some now that saturated fats have been vindicated.

As much as we love creamy, melty butter on our morning toast, there’s another organic unprocessed cooking fat you should think about using: lard.

What is Lard?

We’re not talking the waxy Crisco-like stuff that’s been hydrogenated and processed, or the “lard product”  you can find in huge tubs at the local market (that’s processed lard, and the kind you probably don’t want to use on a regular basis). No, the newest incarnation of lard goes back to basics: Rendered from pork fat, it’s safe at room temperature or in the fridge and easy to scoop and spread. You can get it at a butcher’s, specialty stores, farmers markets, and right here at Thrive Market. Our exclusive pork fat comes from pasture-raised pigs from a regenerative family farm in Georgia. If you’re up for it, you can even make your own lard.

The flavor of lard depends on the kind you’re using. Highly processed lard varieties tend to have a neutral flavor, while rendered lard has a mild meaty flavor (it is pork fat, after all).

Cooking with Lard

Fry, roast, saute, bake—there are lots of ways to cook with lard. It’s a highly versatile ingredient that’s been used in cooking for hundreds of years, and can be swapped in for oil and butter in any recipe, from sweet (like pie crust) to savory (like fried chicken). You can also use it mixed with other cooking fats. 

One of the best things about cooking with lard is that it has a high smoke point. The smoke point of lard is about 375 degrees Fahrenheit, making it appropriate for baking, sauteing, browning, and deep frying. This high smoke point is why frying with lard is so popular, though many cooks equally love the delicate crumb it imparts to baked goods (especially leaf lard, a particular kind of lard from the kidney region of the pig).

Does Lard Go Bad?

In a well-sealed container, lard can be stored safely at room temperature for a few months, but storing lard in the fridge will extend its shelf life. Especially if your home runs warm or you don’t have a cool, dark cabinet to store it in, your best bet is to put it in the fridge. Refrigerated lard is good for a year, while lard that’s been stashed in the freezer will last even longer—up to three years when stored properly with no excess moisture.

McDonald’s French Fries Used to Use Lard

Up until the ’90s, McDonald’s actually fried their famous potatoes in lard. The result? A crispy fry that tasted really good and was cooked in monounsaturated fats, which have been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease. Amidst worries in the 1980s that saturated fats were unhealthy—newsflash: they’re not—the Golden Arches started filling their fryers with vegetable oil. When brought to a high enough temperature to fry foods, —bad news for our health. So trading lard for vegetable oil in an attempt to be healthier didn’t exactly work out for the best.

Since then, lard has gotten a bad rap—it has become so synonymous with obesity that the word alone is an insult. So it’s somewhat surprising to most of us that nutritionally, lard is a better fat source than butter ever could be.

Is Lard Bad For You?

Comparing 100 grams of lard to 100 grams of butter, the difference in nutritional density is pretty clear: Lard contains nearly half the saturated fat that butter does, but has much more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat. Also known and PUFAs and MUFAs, these fats are essential to human health and protecting against heart disease.

The soft rendered fat also contains half the amount of cholesterol as butter, as well as less sodium and zero trans fats. Plus, lard can be a good option for those with dairy or milk allergies who want to cook with a substantial fat source—one that won’t break down at high heats like olive oil.

The Benefits to Healthy Fats

While we fully believe in the benefits of healthy fats, you may not want to add lard into every dish you cook. Other healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and nut butters contain more nutrients and vitamins that are essential to a balanced diet. But if the upcoming holiday season has you thinking about the subtle ways you can make your famous pie crust a little healthier, lard might be the answer.

Lard seems to elevate nearly every dish that’s cooked in it. After all, there’s a reason why it’s the secret ingredient in Julia Child’s roast turkey. The cooking fat used by chefs around the world doesn’t have much of a taste, but it does seem to make fries crispier, pie crusts flakier, and chicken breasts more delightful.

Still aren’t sure what to make of this often-maligned ingredient? Try it for yourself in our rosemary biscuits and Paleo-friendly parsnip fries!

Photo credit: Paul Delmont