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The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads
The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads
The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads
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The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads

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Look in the back corner of your refrigerator. Possibly you’ll find a container of chilled bacon grease. That grease is a form of rendered lard. What are you saving it for? It is currently a “wait in line” situation to get pig fat at the butcher, and past knowledge about rendering and use of lard is mostly shared through verbal instruction and practice. The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads helps preserve such expertise with color photography by Katherine Mary Nichols and historical notes to accompany every recipe. It provides a handy reference for future kitchens, but mostly it's about good old-fashioned food for folks who love heritage cooking.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 21, 2014
ISBN9781311862563
The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads
Author

Elizabeth Swenson

Elizabeth (Lisa) Swenson lives in out state Minnesota and visits local swap meets on Saturday mornings. One day, among rows of antique tables and chairs, bed and bath linens, and vintage kitchen supplies, she found and purchased a three dollar quart of home rendered lard to make a favorite recipe of fried doughnuts. That venture being a success, she looked to her collection of cookbooks for more recipes with lard. In most cases, the natural shortening had been replaced by hydrogenated vegetable oils so she began to research old world recipes from a time only lard was available. The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads is the happy and delicious result.

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    Book preview

    The Artisan Lard Cookbook of Old World Breads and Spreads - Elizabeth Swenson

    The Artisan Lard Cookbook

    of

    Old World

    Breads and Spreads

    By Elizabeth Swenson

    Photography by Katherine Mary Nichols

    Copyright 2014 Elizabeth C. Swenson

    Smashwords Edition

    This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these artists.

    :@)

    For Christina and Gustava

    Piggies and Pastries

    As a child, I was a small town girl whose parents owned and operated the area feed mill. Our meat products came from the local locker plant where animal products sold. Poultry, beef, and pork raised on local farms were often on our table -- eggs and fresh produce supplemented meals. Rendering the fat of hogs was a common practice, and we included the piggy product in our menus as well. In this lifestyle, we ate close to the source and the value of the practice was instilled in me.

    I also had the good fortune of two strong grandmothers. On the maternal side was Christina, a dark-eyed first generation American with the high cheekbones of the Slavic nations. Her kitchen smelled of vinegar, cabbage, roast pork, and wild game. On my father’s side, Gustava was a Swedish immigrant. Her kitchen wafted aromas of fresh pastries, stewing chicken, and rice pudding. Both lived to be octogenarians -- an amazing age for their time. I believe it was due in part to their diet of unadulterated fats. Little did either of them know that the lard they used was unsaturated, or realize their old world recipes would eventually succumb to a blitz of prepared hydrogenated products.

    Today, I am the grandmother and remain focused on the importance of eating source to table. Rendering artisan lard is a great place to start. I hope you find some old favorites here.

    Enjoy!

    Contents

    Piggies and Pastries

    The Practical Pig

    Home Rendering (a guide to NOT stinking up the kitchen)

    Equipment

    Methods of Fat Preparation

    A.R.T. of Rendering Tips

    Basic Bread Recipe and Substitutions

    Old World Breads and Spreads Recipes

    British Isles

    Latin Europe

    Central Europe

    Eastern Europe

    Baltic

    Scandinavia

    Appendix (a few more favorite recipes)

    Glossary

    Index of Images

    About the Author

    The Practical Pig

    Pigs are old world animals. Wild boars appear on ancient cave walls throughout Europe, and explorers who sailed to the New World brought domesticated pigs along to provide food for their voyage. Columbus (supposedly) had eight pigs remaining when he arrived in the West Indies in 1492. Pigs were frequently shipped with pioneer belongings and they’ve been a practical part of kitchen culture for over 500 years.

    Dirty as a Pig

    Are pigs dirty? Maybe on the outside! While it is true they like to wallow in the mud, this activity serves two purposes. First, it cools their bodies and second it prevents bug bites. In mountainous areas of the tropics, peccaries have reportedly taken to swimming in rivers and even invading private pools to achieve the same effects! The truth is, any such acquired dirt is restricted to the outside of the animal and will not taint properly slaughtered pork. In any case, the swine industry is now closely regulated.

    Greedy as a Pig

    In the early 1940’s we lived on my grandparents’ farm and pigs certainly seemed greedy to me. We saved our overages to feed the pigs in a slop pail. Slops were made from middling or corn meal mixed with milk or water and leftovers. The pail in itself was scary to a 3-year-old! Taking the bucket to the pig trough,

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