What Is Lard? The Original Cooking Fat America Abandoned

Lard is rendered pork fat. It is what America fried chicken in, made pie crust with, and stir-fried vegetables in for three centuries — until Procter & Gamble introduced Crisco in 1911 and convinced the country that a cottonseed oil product was healthier than the fat that had built its cuisine. That argument has not aged well. Lard's fat profile is closer to olive oil than butter, it has a smoke point between 370–400°F, and it produces the wok hei that makes Chinese stir-fry taste like restaurant food. Here is what lard actually is and why it belongs back in your kitchen.

What Lard Is and How It Is Made

Lard is the rendered fat of pigs. The pig's fat tissue — found primarily around the back, belly, and kidneys — is separated from the meat, cut into small pieces, and melted slowly over low heat. The fat liquefies, and the small protein pieces (called 'cracklings') are strained out. The remaining liquid is pure pork fat, which solidifies at room temperature into a creamy white solid.

The best lard comes from leaf lard — the fat surrounding the pig's kidneys and loin. It has the mildest flavor of any pork fat and is the fat pastry chefs specifically seek out for flaky pie crust. Leaf lard has less residual pork flavor than back fat or belly fat lard, making it suitable for both savory and sweet applications.

Pasture-raised lard from pigs that have access to outdoor foraging contains higher levels of vitamin D — pigs synthesize it through sun exposure the same way humans do. A 2011 study cited by the Weston A. Price Foundation found pasture-raised lard to have vitamin D levels comparable to supplemented foods. Conventional supermarket lard, by contrast, comes from confinement-raised pigs and has negligible vitamin D content.

Lard's Fat Profile Compared to Seed Oils

The reason lard was replaced — and the reason that argument was wrong — comes down to the difference between saturated fat and polyunsaturated fat under heat. When lard is criticized, it is usually on the grounds of saturated fat content. When seed oils are promoted, it is usually on the grounds of polyunsaturated fat content. But at cooking temperatures, this ranking reverses.

Polyunsaturated fats — the primary component of canola, soybean, sunflower, and corn oils — are chemically unstable. The double bonds in polyunsaturated fatty acids react with oxygen at cooking temperatures, producing aldehydes, lipid peroxides, and other oxidation products that research has linked to inflammation. The more polyunsaturated the fat, the faster it oxidizes. Lard, at only 11% polyunsaturated fat, oxidizes far more slowly than any seed oil.

The monounsaturated fat comparison is the one that matters most for public understanding. Lard is 45% monounsaturated — the same fat type that makes olive oil's health reputation. The idea that lard is categorically different from olive oil in its fat composition is incorrect. They share a similar monounsaturated-to-polyunsaturated ratio; lard simply has more saturated fat as well.

What Crisco Did to American Cooking

In 1911, Procter & Gamble released Crisco — a hydrogenated cottonseed oil that was solid at room temperature and marketed as a clean, modern alternative to lard. The marketing was aggressive and methodical: Crisco distributed free cookbooks that replaced lard in every recipe with Crisco. Churches received free samples. Doctors were lobbied with claims that Crisco was more digestible than animal fat.

The campaign worked. Within a generation, lard went from the universal American cooking fat to a product associated with poverty and old-fashioned cooking. The irony is that Crisco — a hydrogenated trans fat — turned out to be significantly more damaging to cardiovascular health than the lard it replaced. Trans fats were finally banned by the FDA in 2018. Lard, vilified for decades, was never the problem.

How to Cook With Lard

Lard works wherever a neutral fat is needed at medium-to-high heat. Its flavor contribution is mild — less pronounced than beef tallow, lighter than ghee — making it the most versatile ancestral fat for everyday cooking.

• Stir-frying — Chinese cuisine originally used lard as the primary wok fat. It produces genuine wok hei — the smoky, charred edge that makes restaurant stir-fry distinct. Use 1–2 tablespoons in a very hot wok.
• Pie crust and pastry — leaf lard produces the flakiest crust of any fat, including butter. The fat crystallizes in a way that creates distinct layers. Classic American pie crust was always made with lard before Crisco marketing changed the recipe.
• Frying — lard is the traditional fat for fried chicken, doughnuts, and churros in Mexican cuisine. Its mild flavor does not compete with the food being fried.
• Tamales and tortillas — lard is the fat in traditional tamale masa and in flour tortillas. The texture of both is noticeably different — and better — with lard than with any seed oil substitute.
• Braising and slow cooking — lard is the base fat for birria, carnitas, and cochinita pibil. The long cooking time allows the fat to season the meat throughout.

The Best Lard to Buy

The single best widely available pasture-raised lard is Fatworks, available online and at Whole Foods. It comes from pigs raised on pasture without antibiotics, and is rendered to a clean, mild product. Epic brand is the second best widely available option.

If you have a local butcher or farmers market that processes pastured pigs, ask for leaf lard specifically — it will be the highest quality and freshest product you can get, and typically cheaper than specialty brands. Ask for it unrendered (as raw fat) if you want to render it yourself: the process takes 30 minutes and produces lard with the exact consistency you want.

Avoid Armour brand supermarket lard if you can. Some formulations contain partially hydrogenated lard (a trans fat) as a preservative — check the ingredient list. If the label says 'partially hydrogenated lard,' put it back.

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