Here’s how ya do it:

Fresh lard

Cube the lard and add about one cup of water. Slowly melt the fat over low heat for a couple hours.*

Once the lard is melted, strain and reserve the cracklings, if you want to use them for cornbread, etc. Pour the lard into a bowl with two cups of water. Chill the lard/water mixture in the refrigerator until solid. Magically, the lard solidifies on top of the water and lard debris. Lard debris: meditate on that.

Scoop off the solid lard and discard the water and debris. Slowly reheat the lard so that you can funnel it into storage jars. Store the lard for about three months in the refrigerator or one year in the freezer.

Lard is soft at room temperature. Kind of pretty, huh?

Homemade biscuits using lard.

Yum.

I used this recipe to make pizza dough with lard.

It turned out pretty okay, but needs some work. It was too crisp—like a saltine cracker.

Why render lard? Although there are vats of hydrogenated lard (read: trans fats) at the grocery store, freshly rendered lard has gone from being a kitchen staple to a fat for the margins—back-to-the-land types or whole-food gourmets. Little use for excess fat and the demand for lean meat, has resulted in selective breeding for lean animals. According to USDA statistics compiled in Fat by Jennifer McLagan, “in 1950 a pig yielded 33.2 pounds of fat, but in 1990 this figure had fallen to just 10.1 pounds.” Crazy! Now we use brining techniques to make pork more palatable. Like all fats, lard is a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. If you care about this sort of thing, the surprising part is that lard is mostly monounsaturated (approximately 45%). For me, the attraction to lard comes from the ability to render it myself. I can’t make olive oil or canola oil or vegetable oil. I probably can’t afford to make as much butter as I need. But I know where this pork fat comes from and I can easily render a batch twice a year. And it makes for better biscuits and pie crusts, to boot.

*I rendered two batches of lard: one on the stove, the other in the oven. I found the stove-top method to be superior because I had finer control of the heat and I could easily check on it. I like to check it a lot; I’m still paranoid from my first attempt at rendering lard.

I love making pizza! I also love that Matt worked at Papa John’s for 3.5 years, so he’s a pro at rolling out the dough. We get whole wheat dough balls from Earth Elements. They are yummy and convenient. I’ve tried making my own, but it didn’t turn out so well. If you have a good recipe for whole wheat pizza dough, please share! I need to learn how to make tomato paste so that I can have a 100% Oklahoma pizza. That will be a goal for next summer.

Our most recent pizza was amazing. I added some fresh thyme and sage and a little cream to the pizza sauce. We used mushroom slices, copious amount of goat cheese, and  left-over caramelized red onions. The garlic-flavored goat cheese was freakin’ awesome, I might add. However, maybe we went a little bit overboard, or maybe it’s just that we’re not used to goat cheese, but our tummies hurt the next morning. On second thought, maybe it was too much red wine? Oh, well. I suppose it was worth it, because it’s the second-best pizza we’ve ever made. No. 1 had sausage, goat cheese, mozzarella, and pickled jalapenos and mushrooms. A flavor explosion!

Matt’s favorite pizza toppings are hamburger, mushroom, and pineapple, though we’ve never had a homemade version. My favorite toppings are caramelized onions, tomatoes, and goat cheese. Something wonderful happens to the tomato slices when they are baked on a pizza. What are your favorite toppings? And what are some good pizzerias in Oklahoma? The best pizza I’ve ever had was at my beloved Tomato in Denton, Texas. But, it’s closed (much sadness) now, so I need to find a surrogate.

And the pizza was good. We got the Italian Stallion, which had Italian sausage, fennel, red wine tomato sauce, and probably other ingredients I can’t remember. I don’t know why, since there was plenty of cheese, but there was no goo-factor. It was a fresh-feeling pizza; not one that bogs you down. Don’t get me wrong, I like gooey cheese, but this type is good, too. Especially when you have a full night ahead of you.

They serve Choc, which is nice, but we opted for Flying Dog lager from Denver. It’d be nice if they got some local wines. All the prep is done in the dining room and it’s cool to watch the dude sliding the pies in the brick oven.

One gripe: the staff loiters.

It dawned on my why the sauce is so runny! I used the wrong type of tomato. Sometimes I think I am inexplicably wise and dismiss instructions because (in the zeal of the moment) I doubt they are founded on anything besides mere preference. Ah, foolish confidence!

Well, here I am a complete novice food preserver, and I decide to use the generic, red, round tomato since that was all that was available through the Co-op. Had I opted for a paste tomato, such as a Roma, my virgin tomato sauce would be just that—a sauce, rather than a soup!

So, instead, I add a little canned tomato paste to my too-runny sauce and make do. The pizza was delicious along with the red wine we picked up at the Summerside Winery on our way home from Missouri over Thanksgiving. We tasted several types, but the Route 66 Red was our favorite.

After taking our order, the waiter brought some cannellini bean spread and placed a piece of focaccia on each of our plates. Soon he brought water and Anchor Steam Liberty Ale. A roaming server replenished the bread from a basket on her arm.

They just released their fall menu, so I guess they make an attempt to work with the season’s bounty. I had to get all the seasons in one with the four seasons pizza, the Quattro Stagioni. The server brought it out and then broke the sunny-side-up egg that was placed on top of the pizza. Using a fork and knife, he spread the yolk around. He explained that the Quattro Stagioni is traditional Roman fare, and the mellow flavor of the egg balances the salty ingredients: proscuitto, wild mushrooms, kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, garlic, and cheese. Did I mention that I like strong flavors?

Matt got the Linguini Carbonara L’Origianal. He said that it was bland, save for the bites with bits of applewood-smoked bacon. Always one to give sage advice, I told him he should just make sure every bite has a bit of bacon. I tried a bite, and the bacon was incredibly flavorful. The moment I closed my mouth around the fork, I was overwhelmed with the smoky flavor. Wow!

Our waiter creatively wrapped my leftover pizza and we made our way home.

I’ll talk about how tonight’s pizza came together. It was pretty effortless.

As always, the crust came from Earth Elements Farm. Matt, the one-time pizza-makin’ pro, prepped the dough and baked it for about 10 minutes.

I usually keep a couple of cans of tomato paste on hand. I warmed the paste on the stovetop, added a little water and some herbs. I thawed a couple pesto cubes and liberally spread the pesto and tomato sauce on the partially baked crust. All this while sipping on a wonderful glass of classic red from Canadian River Winery.

Toppings: some leftover Italian-seasoned chicken sausage from Monday night, thawed roasted eggplant, sliced roasted red peppers, mozzarella, and some goat cheese.

Fun times in the kitchen.

We’ve been buying frozen whole wheat pizza dough through the co-op from Earth Elements Farm. It’s become a regular item in our co-op order because it’s so convenient and yummy. I caramelized onions, spread the dough with pesto and marinara, tomatoes, mozzarella and goat cheese, and some fresh basil. Heavenly.