My first attempt at rendering lard.

Ok, so the new news is that animal fats are good and most vegetable fats are bad (unless cold pressed olive oil and virgin coconut oil- think unprocessed).  Unfortunately, however the lard you purchase in the grocery store has been partially hydrogenated (like margarine) to make it more solid for transportation and shelf-life.  Man-made trans fats are bad, so I decided to take the plunge and try rendering my own lard from a big bag of pork fat I purchased from the local farm where we buy our meat.

I did this for about 30 seconds and decided I didn't have the time for cutting the pork fat into little bitty pieces.

I filled my 8 qt crock pot and cooked on low.

My husband came along later and cut up the fat with scissors.  Why didn't I think of that?

Because I didn't cut the pork into litlte pieces at first, it had to cook too long and you can see some of the pieces getting too brown.

After the first straining. 

They turned out more white than I thought, but I do detect a faint odor and taste.  Not ideal for pie crusts!  Next time I'll have to cut the pork up smaller to begin with.  Next time may be today since I still have more pork fat to render.

All in all it went ok.  Our breakfast of scrambled eggs and biscuits were made with our new lard and the kids ate it up.  Big D did not like the smell, though it didn't bother me.  He said our house was beginning to smell like an Alsups!