Recipes with pork lard

8 recipes that use pork lard, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Perrunillas, takes 38 minutes. It is most often cooked with garlic, white onion and egg.

Got a few things in the fridge? Search by everything you have

Tamales oaxaqueños

In Oaxaca, tamales are wrapped in banana leaves rather than corn husks, which makes them flat, square and very moist, with a faint grassy scent from the leaf. These are the classic version filled with mole negro and shredded chicken, sold from steaming pots at morning markets and made by the dozen for Christmas, Candlemas on 2 February and the Day of the Dead. The masa is beaten with pork lard, which gives the traditional light, rich texture; vegetable shortening works if you avoid pork. Use leftover mole negro, or a simplified mole made from good ready-made paste thinned with broth. Eat them with hot chocolate or atole. Chef's tip: keep a coin in the bottom of the steamer; when it stops rattling, the water has run low and needs topping up.

135 min

Mexican Chicken

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Carnitas

Quiroga, a lakeside town in Michoacán, is the capital of carnitas: on weekends the plaza fills with stalls simmering huge copper pots of pork, sold by the kilo with warm tortillas, salsa verde and lime. This pork dish uses shoulder cooked gently in its own fat and lard with orange and garlic, so it turns soft inside and then browns into crisp, golden edges at the end. Pile it into tacos with onion, coriander and salsa, or keep it for tortas ahogadas. Chef's tip: when the meat is tender, turn the heat up for the last 10–15 minutes and stir; this final fry in hot lard is what gives carnitas their crackly edges.

195 min

Mexican Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chilorio

Chilorio is Sinaloa's great pork dish: pork shoulder simmered until it falls apart, shredded and then fried in pork lard with a vinegary paste of ancho and guajillo chillies until almost dry and deeply brick-red. Ranch cooks around Culiacán made it to keep, and it is still packed into jars and sold in markets across the north. It is rich, tangy and gently spicy rather than fiery, and it fills flour tortillas for burritos, tops scrambled eggs at breakfast or goes into tortas with refried beans. Chef's tip: fry the shredded pork in the lard for a few minutes before the chilli goes in, so the edges crisp and the paste clings instead of stewing.

175 min

Mexican Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Langosta estilo Puerto Nuevo

In the fishing village of Puerto Nuevo, south of Rosarito on the Baja coast, dozens of family restaurants serve lobster the same way: split in half, fried in hot pork lard until the shell blisters and the flesh is sweet and just firm, then brought to the table with refried beans, red rice, salsa, melted butter, lime and stacks of soft flour tortillas for making lobster tacos. The local lobster is the clawless spiny kind, but any lobster or raw lobster tails work; frozen raw tails are an easy route. Live lobsters should be bought from a reputable fishmonger, kept cold in the fridge under a damp cloth and cooked the same day. Chef's tip: fry the halves flesh-side down first and don't move them, so the meat gets a light golden crust.

70 min

Mexican Fish

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Cachuela

Cachuela belongs to the matanza, the winter pig slaughter that once filled every village in Extremadura with family and neighbours for several days. The fresh liver was cooked straight away with lard, onion, garlic and plenty of pimentón, then mashed into a coarse, spicy spread for breakfast on toast. People still make it in Badajoz and Cáceres homes through the cold months, and it keeps for a few days in the fridge. This contains pork (pork liver and pork lard). Chef's tip: cook the liver through but not a minute longer; overcooked liver turns grainy and bitter.

45 min

Spanish Snacks & Starters

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Perrunillas

Perrunillas are the cookies of Extremaduran grandmothers, baked in village ovens for Christmas, weddings and the days after the matanza, when fresh lard was plentiful. They are thick, pale and so short they crumble the moment you bite, with a crackly sugar top, and they are eaten with coffee or a glass of milk in the afternoon. This contains pork (pork lard), so they are not vegetarian. Chef's tip: beat the lard and sugar for a good few minutes until very pale and fluffy; that air is what makes them light.

38 min

Spanish Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ensaïmada

This contains pork: the name comes from saïm, the pork lard brushed over the dough before it is coiled, and it is what gives an ensaïmada its shattering, flaky layers. Mallorcans eat them for breakfast with hot chocolate or coffee, and at Palma airport you will see travellers carrying flat hexagonal boxes of large ones home as gifts. The dough is enriched with egg and sugar, stretched until thin enough to see through, rolled into a rope and wound into a loose spiral, then proved overnight. Chef's tip: oil your hands and the worktop generously before stretching, so the dough slides rather than sticks and tears.

78 min

Spanish Baking

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Panades

On Easter Saturday, Mallorcan kitchens turn into pie workshops: whole families shape panades, small upright pies with pinched rims and a pastry lid, filled with raw diced lamb, peas and a little pork belly, then bake them to eat on Easter Sunday and the picnics of the days after. This contains pork (lard in the pastry and pork belly in the filling); butter can replace the lard and the belly can be left out. The meat cooks inside the pastry, staying juicy. Chef's tip: cut the lamb small, no bigger than 1.5 cm, so it cooks right through in the time the pastry takes to brown.

120 min

Spanish Meat

by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with pork lard