lard
Rendered, purified pork fat, solid at room temperature like shortening or butter but with a distinct savory, faintly porky flavor of its own. Used both as a cooking fat and, in baking, prized for making exceptionally flaky pie crusts and biscuits -- its coarser fat crystals create bigger, flakier layers than butter alone gives.
Buying guidance
Look for "leaf lard" for the finest, most neutral-tasting result in baking -- it's rendered from the fat around the kidneys and has less porky flavor than lard rendered from other fat. Ordinary lard (sold in a block or tub, often shelf-stable) is fine for cooking and frying, where its stronger flavor is less noticeable or even welcome. Avoid hydrogenated shelf-stable lard if a recipe depends on real lard's texture, since hydrogenation changes how it behaves in dough.
Substitutions
- Vegetable shortening -- similarly solid and neutral-flavored, a common 1:1 substitute in baking, though it lacks lard's savory depth.
- Butter -- adds its own rich flavor and browns more, but has more water content, which changes texture slightly in pastry.
- Bacon fat, rendered and strained -- adds a smokier, more assertive pork flavor; best in savory cooking rather than baking.
Tips & common mistakes
Using it straight from a warm kitchen rather than cold, the same mistake as with butter in pastry, softens it too much to cut into flour properly -- keeping it cold right up until it's worked into the dough is what creates the flaky layers lard is prized for.
Storage
Traditional rendered lard from a butcher keeps refrigerated for a few months or frozen for up to a year; shelf-stable, hydrogenated lard sold in supermarkets keeps at room temperature for a long time unopened, per its label, but refrigerate after opening to slow it turning rancid.