Can I bake with the lard that’s in plastic tubs at the grocery store?

Price check: one tub of lard.

Reader Ronnie, there are good reasons for bakers to avoid lard in plastic tubs. For one, because it tends to be the lower grade stuff with the piggier taste. Second, a lot of store-bought lard — unless it’s a Mexican brand — is rendered at a very low temperature so it lacks the roasted flavor notes that are so important to its overall profile. Third, store bought lard is partially hydrogenated to extend its shelf life — and partial hydrogenation produces trans fats. I myself don’t think trans fats are worth worrying about. Many other people, however, do. That’s one reason for the turn back to solid animal fats over processed shortenings. Buying store lard, therefore, rather defeats the purpose.

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Why did we ever switch from lard to shortening?

Because greedy mega-corporations forced us into it! Or anyway that’s the pat answer you get in most of the pieces you read on the subject. It’s a simplistic idea that ignores the big food and technology trends that were underway at the time, as well as basic economic principles like supply and its effect on price and demand.

Flash back about 125 years in America and you’d find a nation of cooks who, just like today, wanted/needed fats for various purposes: baking, cooking, frying, spreading on toast, that sort of thing. In those days, different fats were favored in different regions of the country according to price and local availability. In the wealthier north and northeast, where dairying was common, people used a lot of butter. In southern states, which were far poorer, people used a lot of lard.

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So what’s your theory?

Reader David notes my skepticism of Nina Teicholz’s theory that vegetable oils and carbs caused a spike in heart disease in the 50’s and 60’s. He asks: do I have any theories of my own about what caused it? In fact I do, David, though be warned: I have theories about pretty much everything. My personal belief is that the increase in heart disease in the middle of the last century has comparatively little to do with the specific stuff we eat (vegetable oils, carbs, animal fats, corn, transfats, take your pick). Rather it is mostly attributable to two factors: that America got rich and that America got sedentary.

It’s well known that the big shift away from “agrarian America” that began in the 1890’s and picked up steam in the 20’s and 30’s was pretty much completed by a decade after World War II. The economy was booming and a strong middle class was forming. People were moving off the farm and into the cities where the jobs were generally higher paying and the living was generally easier. They had more money and more free time than they ever had before, and they spent a good deal of it eating and relaxing. And stressing about their office jobs, also smoking, I shouldn’t forget either of those.

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Firm Butter, Greasy Butter

Got into an interesting conversation over the weekend about butter, and why inexpensive butter can make cookie dough greasy and hard to cut. It all has to do with melting points, which tend to be sharper with cheap butters that with higher quality butters. Allow me to explain. A melting point can be “sharp” or “broad”, a sharp melting point being defined as a rapid shift from solid to liquid. Cocoa butter is a great example of a substance with a sharp melting point. It’s solid as a rock at room temperature, then melts almost instantantly when it reaches 98 or so degrees Fahrenheit. Substances with a broad melting points, by contrast, change from one to the other more slowly.

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The Big Fat Surprise

Next week a major new book will be published on the subject of dietary fat and why it’s good for you. It’s called The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz. Long time Joe Pastry readers know that this is a drum I’ve been beating for several years now, and I’m very pleased to see that Ms. Teicholz has done some serious research on this important subject. A feature was published about it in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. However because some readers will have trouble accessing it behind the WSJ‘s paywall, I’m going to quote it at length.

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Place Your Bets!

The bars are serving ’round the clock, learjets fill the skies and fresh mint is as rare and expensive as marijuana. It’s Derby time. The race is tomorrow and per family tradition we made our way to Churchill Downs at dawn to watch the horses warm up. Only this week does the track let people in ahead of the daily race schedule.

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Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

Lemon meringue pie is a basically a citrus curd pie save for the fact that the “curd” is made with a mixture of water and juice (instead of all juice), and it’s thickened with cornstarch. The water provides added volume (and frankly also keeps the flavor of the filling from becoming overwhelming) and the cornstarch provides thickening as well as insurance against curdling in the oven. This recipe — which steals tricks from both Rose Levy Beranbaum and Cook’s Illustrated — combines a deep pie with a break-resistant American-style meringue.

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