Quite a few folks around here have done it.  We've actually had several discussions about it, but you might want to start reading here: http://chickensintheroad.com/forum/the-farmhouse-table/how-to-render-lard/

Or read Suzanne's blog entry here: http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/making-lard/ 

and here: http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell-recipes/how-to-render-lard/

If you don't keep out some of that lard for some VERY good cooking, I am not sure that I will claim you!  It is soooo good, and soooo healthy.

And I hope that you got a VERY good deal on the leaf fat.  When available around here, it it horridly expensive.  I would not even consider using it for making soap, since it is absolutely the best there is for baking.

But, it's yours, and you may do with it what you will!  (As IF you need my permission!  I hope that my teasing tone is coming through here!!)

Have fun with it.  There are so many ways to render it.  I have a couple of cast iron Dutch ovens that are waiting for the lard making extravaganza one of these days.

From here – that looks like a terrific price!  My local butcher has to purchase pig fat for his own sausage making and it is $2 per pound.

Sharon, I use Suzanne's recipe for Quick Mix and mix a bit higher proportion (it varies, but always less than half and half) of my home ground wheat to the AP flour in her recipe.  They are WONDERFUL!  Must warn that they are very crumbly - impossible to pick up and eat without them falling apart but the flavor is great.

Sharon, I probably didn't make myself clear with my previous post – I was talking about biscuits.  I'm not much for pies so have only tried Suzanne's recipe for piecrust once.  It was very good and relatively easy.  She did her recipe at the retreat and the crust was great.  And it held VERY well through the next day.  No loss in quality at all that I could tell.

We have had several discussions around here about making biscuits over the years.  I had only managed to make wonderful hockey pucks until seeing or reading to be sure to not overwork the dough.  So, I tried cutting in the fat and barely stirring the dough after adding the milk.  It appeared that there was no way it would hold together into something which could actually be cut into biscuits.  Sure enough, by the time I got it all scraped out onto the counter, gathered it all up and sort of semi-kneaded it a time or two then flattened it out into an oblong-ish sort of shape, it cut beautifully.  And the baked biscuits were great.

Not overhandling seems to be the key.  Now my biscuit dough always looks and feels like it needs to be stirred and/or kneaded a great deal more than I have done it, but I stop myself.  They always turn out better now.  Yum!

Every one of those pies was made on Thursday afternoon at the retreat!  Many hands involved – some had never been near a piecrust before!  (Mine were only involved with toting them from here to there!)  But, what it showed me was that Suzanne's crust recipe is very forgiving and not fussy at all.