Rendering Lard

Since we had two hogs butchered I decided to try rendering lard.  I got this idea from a nurse at work.  Tom thinks I am going “Little House on the Prairie” on him.   So I asked Tom to ask the butcher to save 15# of lard for me.  There was a miscommunication somewhere, and I ended up with 4 large bags of lard.  Above is 1/4 of the lard I received.  So yesterday I tried a crock pot rendering recipe.  It is at http://robbwolf.com/  Here are the crackpots (one vintage and one new) full of cut up lard:

Here is the quarts of lard after they have cooled:

And here are the leftover cracklings:

I was nauseated through this process and not interested in trying the cracklings.  So they are going to be dog treats.  The crock pot method made a big mess to clean up, so today I tried using an oven method.  It is at http://www.foodnetwork.com/  Here is the pan full of cut up lard in the oven:

And here is the quarts of lard from this method:

I seemed to get less lard, but it is better quality.  And there was less mess.  I was nauseated during this process too, so I think I am done rendering lard (plus I tried to burn my face).  Tom says he will throw out the rest before a tragedy happens.

I always thought old recipes with lard were weird, especially the pie crust ones.  But now I have come to realize that shortening is probably worse and supposedly well rendered lard does not taste piggy.  Once I recover completely from the rendering experience, I will try cooking with it and decide for myself.