Leaf lard substitute

[Susan B]

I am planning to make a recipe that calls for leaf lard brushed on a pizza dough before adding the topping. I have called the local market which says I could obtain some from a specialty market about an hour south of here. Since I made the four hour drive to Seattle and back yesterday I am not thrilled with the idea of repeating half of it again before Sunday. I have seen from former posts that it is available by mail, but obviously don't have the time. Two questions:

1. Is there an acceptable and more available substitute for this application?

2. Does anyone in this area (Birch Bay / Bellingham Washington - ish) know of a local source?

[Mark Willstatter]

Just use olive oil. It's what I normally do and I can't imagine your pizza suffering for it.

[Susan B]

Thanks, Mark. Would a little bacon fat added to the olive oil bring the flavor closer to the leaf lard?

[Jeff Grossman/NYC]

I am no leaf lard expert but it is reputed to have very little pork flavor. That is one of the reasons it is considered 'best' for use in making pastry.

So, sure, swipe the crust with fatback, if that's to your liking. I, too, would suppose that olive oil will do just fine.

[Mark Lipton]

If you have access to duck or goose fat, those also make decent substitutes for leaf lard. Indeed, it does have little to no pork flavor to it. Crisco was also designed as a lard substitute for use in baking way back when, but I'd go with the other suggestions before that.

Mark Lipton

[Frank Deis]

For what it's worth the guy in the URL below seems to think that you can get a lard which is more or less equivalent to leaf lard by simply rendering the pork fat yourself. Seems to make some sense to me. And I know that the TEXTURE of a pie crust can be dramatically affected by a change in the fat, like using Plugra (also mentioned in the URL) instead of regular butter. Lard and Plugra move the texture of pastry in the same direction. I don't think olive oil would even be in the same ballpark for something like pie crust, but of course it wasn't suggested for that.

One of my favorite cookbooks, the Elote Cafe Cookbook, also strongly suggests making your own lard at home -- if you are making Mexican food (I know I am off topic) you want to be able to make delicious tamales. Tamales contain a lot of lard and the home-made stuff beats the heck out of the store bought stuff, at least according to the cookbook.

Anyway. See what you think. For what it is worth I also have spent frustrating years looking for things like caul fat and leaf lard. I even printed out the terms in Chinese to ask the butchers at the local Chinese groceries. Nada. (PS Just checked and you can buy caul fat from Amazon.com!! And leaf lard here: https://www.prairiepridepork.com/)

http://www.culinate.com/columns/bacon/C ... 2C+part+II

[Jenise]

I am planning to make a recipe that calls for leaf lard brushed on a pizza dough before adding the topping. I have called the local market which says I could obtain some from a specialty market about an hour south of here. Since I made the four hour drive to Seattle and back yesterday I am not thrilled with the idea of repeating half of it again before Sunday. I have seen from former posts that it is available by mail, but obviously don't have the time. Two questions:

1. Is there an acceptable and more available substitute for this application?

2. Does anyone in this area (Birch Bay / Bellingham Washington - ish) know of a local source?

What kind of pizza is it that suggests leaf lard before toppings?

[Susan B]

Jenise wrote:
What kind of pizza is it that suggests leaf lard before toppings?

It is potato and sweet onion with rosemary. I did shaved asaparagus pizza on whole wheat crust this afternoon, it was so good I may do that tomorrow instead.