Lard rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 348 recipes to cook with it.

What is lard?

Lard is rendered pork fat, gently melted down from the fatty tissue of a pig and strained into a soft, creamy white solid. For centuries it was the everyday cooking fat across Europe, Mexico, and the American South.

It is quietly coming back as cooks rediscover what it does that other fats cannot.

Its great trick is flakiness. Lard forms large fat crystals that stay in flat sheets through dough, which is why a lard pie crust or a biscuit shatters into tender layers that an all-butter crust struggles to match.

Good lard barely tastes of pork once cooked. It reads as clean richness, not bacon.

Cooking With Lard

Lard has two main jobs. In baking it makes the flakiest pastry and the lightest biscuits and tamale dough, chosen for that texture rather than any flavor it adds.

In savory cooking it is the traditional fat for frying and for Mexican classics. It fries pieces clean, it is the fat that makes refried beans taste like the real thing, and it carries the filling in a dish like Chiles En Nogada (Chiles in Walnut Sauce).

It also enriches rustic European cooking, from a French Pate to the thin Italian flatbread Borlenghe. When you render your own, the browned bits left behind are cracklings, good stirred into cornbread or an old-fashioned Apple or Crackling Mush.

Its smoke point sits around 370°F (188°C), high enough for shallow frying and roasting potatoes to a deep crisp.

Lard Versus Shortening and Butter

Against butter, lard wins on flakiness and loses on flavor. Butter brings that rich, milky taste and browns beautifully, but its water content steams in the oven; lard, nearly pure fat, makes a more tender, flaky crust. Many bakers split the difference, using both in one crust.

Against vegetable shortening, lard is the original that shortening was invented to imitate. Both are roughly 100 percent fat and behave alike in pastry, but lard gives a slightly better flake and a faint savory depth, while shortening is flavorless and stays solid at warmer temperatures.

The mistake to avoid is reaching for the wrong lard. The shelf-stable bricks in the baking aisle are usually hydrogenated and deodorized, fine for general baking but flat. Fresh leaf lard, rendered from the fat around the kidneys, is the prize for pie crust: mild and clean, almost snowy white.

Substitutes

For pastry, vegetable shortening is the closest one-to-one swap; use the same amount and accept slightly less flake. Butter also works, though you may want a touch more flour or a splash less water to manage its moisture.

For frying and savory dishes, any neutral high-heat oil or beef tallow stands in, though you lose the particular richness lard brings to beans and Mexican cooking. Rendered bacon fat is a flavorful, slightly smoky alternative when a little pork taste is welcome.

Coconut oil is a vegetarian option for flaky pastry, since it too is solid at room temperature, but it leaves a faint coconut note.

Buying and Storing

Look for fresh or leaf lard from a butcher or the refrigerated case rather than the shelf-stable bricks if texture and flavor matter. Read the label and skip anything with added hydrogenated oils or preservatives if you want the pure article.

Store fresh, unprocessed lard in the fridge, where it keeps for several months, or freeze it for up to a year. Shelf-stable processed lard can sit in a cool, dark cupboard until opened, then moves to the fridge.

Like any fat, lard eventually goes rancid. If it smells sharp and paint-like rather than clean and neutral, throw it out.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find lard: Lard is usually found in the baking supplies section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Lard is a member of the Fats and Oils US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

猪油

British (UK) term

Lard

en français

le saindoux

en español

la manteca de cerdo

How much does lard weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 cup	205 grams
1 tbsp	12 grams

Related

Fats and Oils

Recipes using lard

There are 348 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 348 recipes

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