LARD

[bcl50]

If you ever traveled in Mexico you ate a lot of lard cooked food, still do away from the bigger cities. I was raised in north east Texas, lard was a staple in every house. If it wasn't lard it was bacon greese. The best food I ever ate was from those country kitchens. I don't reccomend any one using only lard but once in a while I'll use lard for fried chicken or biscuits etc. Gravy is always made with bacon greese.

[honda03842]

Ditto on Bacon.

We have one egg, one slice of bacon and a piece of toast virtually every morning.

Norm

[Randy Bishop]

I was raised here in Alabama and as a young kid we lived right next to my Grandparents and we raised everything and slaughtered it, gathered our own eggs and rendered lard after the butchering of our hogs. had a Jersey milk cow and all...The hog killing always happened right before Christmas...My Grandfather would salt the hams, shoulders and middlings(Pork Bellies ).We made our own sausage and I can still remember the big sage patch my Grandmother had and the smell of it...I also remember having to strip the fat from the intestines, it would hang in thin sheets off the intestines, other pieces of fat we cut into chunks but we never render it with the skin on..After the lard was render out the small bits that was left behind would be strained out and my Grandmother would make crackling cornbread with it and it was great..I was raised with 2 cousins, one my age the other a couple years older and it was our duty to find the hens nest and gather the eggs, we would take all the eggs and leave a egg gord in the nest this would trick the hen so she would not relocate the nest, and we gathered all eggs from ducks, geese, turkey and chicken and I've ate them all..A goose egg is a real plate full and very rich, the best I remember the yellow would really stand up on the white part..My mother and Grandmother cooked with lard all thier life and my mother still does to this day....She says shes too old to change now she's 78 years young now..OH those were the good old days....Never wore shoes hardly execpt in the winter not even to sckool until the 3 grade and I remember keeping both of my big toes stubb til the nails would nearly fall off..In the fall school was let out for cotton picking and I remember it paid 1 1/2 cents pulled (that was burr and all) and 3 cents picked per pound, in some fields they required it to be pulled but mostly they wanted it picked, had to drag a toesack..I wonder how many people know what a toesack is..

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Randy Bishop

I was raised here in Alabama and as a young kid we lived right next to my Grandparents and we raised everything and slaughtered it, gathered our own eggs and rendered lard after the butchering of our hogs. had a Jersey milk cow and all...The hog killing always happened right before Christmas...My Grandfather would salt the hams, shoulders and middlings(Pork Bellies ).We made our own sausage and I can still remember the big sage patch my Grandmother had and the smell of it...I also remember having to strip the fat from the intestines, it would hang in thin sheets off the intestines, other pieces of fat we cut into chunks but we never render it with the skin on..After the lard was render out the small bits that was left behind would be strained out and my Grandmother would make crackling cornbread with it and it was great..I was raised with 2 cousins, one my age the other a couple years older and it was our duty to find the hens nest and gather the eggs, we would take all the eggs and leave a egg gord in the nest this would trick the hen so she would not relocate the nest, and we gathered all eggs from ducks, geese, turkey and chicken and I've ate them all..A goose egg is a real plate full and very rich, the best I remember the yellow would really stand up on the white part..My mother and Grandmother cooked with lard all thier life and my mother still does to this day....She says shes too old to change now she's 78 years young now..OH those were the good old days....Never wore shoes hardly execpt in the winter not even to sckool until the 3 grade and I remember keeping both of my big toes stubb til the nails would nearly fall off..In the fall school was let out for cotton picking and I remember it paid 1 1/2 cents pulled (that was burr and all) and 3 cents picked per pound, in some fields they required it to be pulled but mostly they wanted it picked, had to drag a toesack..I wonder how many people know what a toesack is..

Absolutely great story. You've provided a point in time that provides perspective for us all. Thank you.

Norm

[bcl50]

Originally Posted by Randy Bishop

I was raised here in Alabama and as a young kid we lived right next to my Grandparents and we raised everything and slaughtered it, gathered our own eggs and rendered lard after the butchering of our hogs. had a Jersey milk cow and all...The hog killing always happened right before Christmas...My Grandfather would salt the hams, shoulders and middlings(Pork Bellies ).We made our own sausage and I can still remember the big sage patch my Grandmother had and the smell of it...I also remember having to strip the fat from the intestines, it would hang in thin sheets off the intestines, other pieces of fat we cut into chunks but we never render it with the skin on..After the lard was render out the small bits that was left behind would be strained out and my Grandmother would make crackling cornbread with it and it was great..I was raised with 2 cousins, one my age the other a couple years older and it was our duty to find the hens nest and gather the eggs, we would take all the eggs and leave a egg gord in the nest this would trick the hen so she would not relocate the nest, and we gathered all eggs from ducks, geese, turkey and chicken and I've ate them all..A goose egg is a real plate full and very rich, the best I remember the yellow would really stand up on the white part..My mother and Grandmother cooked with lard all thier life and my mother still does to this day....She says shes too old to change now she's 78 years young now..OH those were the good old days....Never wore shoes hardly execpt in the winter not even to sckool until the 3 grade and I remember keeping both of my big toes stubb til the nails would nearly fall off..In the fall school was let out for cotton picking and I remember it paid 1 1/2 cents pulled (that was burr and all) and 3 cents picked per pound, in some fields they required it to be pulled but mostly they wanted it picked, had to drag a toesack..I wonder how many people know what a toesack is..

Randy it sounds like we lived parallel lifes though mine was in north east Texas. You didn't mention it but I suspect you also made your own Lye soap. Our's was made in a big cast iron kettel over a fire out back. That same kettel was used for washing large loads of cloths, sheets, quilts etc, smaller loads and baths were in wash tubs. I had my own cotton sack and when we pulled the husk and all we called it pulling boles. Pulling (husk) was a lot faster than picking but paid a lot less and really tore up your fingers. My cousins and I would have guinny (sp) egg fights their eggs were about the size of a golf ball and just as hard. Ever reach under a hen to get eggs and find a bull snake under her sucking the eggs, you can tear down a fair sized hen house getting away. I got .25 cents for gathering eggs, feeding the chickens and picking pullets every other Sat. when we went to town to sell them. Also remember walking to buy kerosene(coal oil) for the cook stove. I remember more than I could ever put here. For a kid yep the good old days not so sure about the adults. Oh nearly forgot I have about a dozen toe sacks in my barn.

[theresa p]

GREAT stories!!! and i'll bite---what is a toe sack?

[bcl50]

Originally Posted by theresa p

GREAT stories!!! and i'll bite---what is a toe sack?

burlap bag, holds about a bushel. We still use them a lot in New Mexico. We buy pinto beans and green chili in them.

[bcl50]

I just noticed something the other day. You can still buy flour in printed fabric. Mabe I just hadn't paid attenion over the years. When I was a kid my mother and grand mother would shop for patterns alike, go to several stores trying to match them. Most of my shirts were made from Robin Hood flour sacks.

[bcl50]

Don't know we got to all this from LARD but enjoyed the trip.

[Randy Bishop]

"Toe Sack" AKA Burlap Bag is correct we have a winner.........


Yea I still remember the flower sacks and in those days we got all our drinking glasses in sacks of Oats, Grandma's Bruton Snuff or sometimes from Bama brand jelly jars, mostly oats and snuff jars because Grandma made all the jellies and jams..Nothing better than a Big Ole Cathead Biscuit with homemade butter and Pears Preserves...OH! OH! OH! I'll never forget Grandma's fried apple pies now that was the best...Forget about the lard............ I'm HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man my Grandma could take her two fingers put them aganist her lips and from the porch to the yard completely cover a dirt dobber at 15 ft...Now that was always funny....And if you ever got stung by wasp or yellow jackets you had to let her dig some snuff out of her mouth and dobb on all the stings..Cuts and scrapes she would smear Poke Berry juice on that.. you would end up with purple poke-a-dots..

[Pam Garlow]

I remember my mom making eggs in bacon grease in a cast irong skillet. She'd drop in the eggs and they'd start sputtering and crackling. Then she'd gently spoon the hot bacon grease over the eggs until the membrane over the yolks was cooked. Then, out of the frying pan, onto my plate. mmmmmm. I remember that my other favorite part was the crispy brown edges that the egg would develop.
And lard makes the best pie crusts!

[james kent]

Back in the 40's when I was a little kid we didn't have margarine. It was a new thing that came white with a colour button that you mixed in by hand. Mom would save all the pork fat drippings in a large tin and rendered it for cooking. Back then the ice man came around and brought a block that went into the top of the icebox. My job was to empty the water tray from below when it was full. A big job for a little kid and sometimes it got all over the floor and I had to mop it up under mom's carefull supervision. The coal man dumped the coal down a chute to a special room in the basement and the ashes had to be shaken out of the furnace and taken outside to the curb. Fresh veggies came from your own back yard and the surpluss was taken to a 'cold room' for winter use. There were no cooking sprays back then and rendered fat or pure lard was about the only method used for cooking. We didn't seem to get sick a lot and no one was overweight. I think that there is more fat used in todays fast food industries than my mom used back then.
Mom's apple pie was the best, wasn't it?

[bcl50]

yes i remember the water tray, our house and a lot of others had a rotten floor under the ice box from spilled water. Also you had a card you placed on the front door that
was marked 15-25-35-50 it told the ice man how much ice you wanted by which number was up. We didn't have coal, we had wood at first and then coal oil. My job was to walk up the road and buy the coal oil. I always looked foward to the ice man comming. He would give me a chunck of ice, in the east Texas summer that was as good as ice cream.

[honda03842]

James,
I suspect part of the thinness releated to the chores, working in the garden and actually walking places.

The Lard post has become one of my favorites. We also had an ice box, coal bin, ashes, kindling.......

Thanks for your thoughts

Norm

[Sheryl]

Heck, we had a porta-potty , too. Sorta.

[melissab]

Great Stories! I'm a bit young to have experienced any of this but my G'parents did....possibly my parents? They were born in '49 so not sure what years ya'll are referring to. Sad to think this info will be lost to future generations. My folks think people were thinner back then in part due to the hard work, walking etc but also b/c the food they ate was not fake food. Their bodies knew what to do with it and how to process it instead of just storing it as unrecognizable chemicals. There also wasnt all the sugar in e'thing back then. Good point that Fast Food probably has more fat/sugar now then a full home cooked meal (maybe even with dessert) then.

We've cut back on refined flours/sugars/carbs and started eating more meat/protein/veggies like bacon & eggs for b'fast instead of cereal, pork chops, chicken, steak etc and since Feb I've lost 22 lbs and hubby has lost 35 lbs. Our cholesterol is finally normal and for the first time since Hubby being diagnosed with diabetes (5 yrs ago or so) his sugar levels were in the acceptable range. This after being threatened with shots if he didnt get them down just 3 months prior. His sleep apnea has improved so much they are giving him a new machine and lowering his settings. His sleep study is next week so he may get to go from a Bi-Pap machine to a CPAP. So we think there is something to be said for eating "real food" even though it goes against what the current thinking is. Our doctor told us to keep doing what we're doing cuz it's the best blood work we've had in years. I'm trying to make as much from scratch as possible with no artificial/processed anything. Just good old "meat and taters", lol. Now I can tell my Mom I know why food G'ma cooked tasted better than ours using the same recipe (baked goods, fried foods etc.), I'm sure G'ma didnt use veggie oil but probably lard or Crisco.

Thanks for this thread, it's really been enjoyable!

[SherryNPaul]

And truly, it's really, really hard to find lard here in Florida.
We used to render it in the kitchen on the farm. Never thought it would be a rare item.
Sherry

[melissab]

Sherry, while at the Walmart Neighborhood Market today I saw Armour Lard next to the Crisco so it does exist here in Melbourne, FL at least.

[bcl50]

I really think the more active lifestyles we lived back then had more to do with weight control than anything. We wern't desert eaters but consumed lots of sugar, fresh milk, lard and bacon greese fried foods. We always had at least three varities of home made pies in the pie safe, Banana Pudding at least once a month and homemade cookies and candy regulary, all cooked with lard. Not to mention all the homemade jelly and jam and real butter on yeast rolls. With my activity level now I would easily weigh 300 pounds if I ate like I did back then and I'm more active than most of my friends. We did eat some healthy foods more by accident than by design. We had pool of water behind the house that provided fresh fish, and fresh water mussels. But the fish were always fried, same with crawdads. We always had a large variety of homegrown fresh vegies much was canned for the winter. Apple pear and pecan trees. The only store bought fruit was bananas. I would guess 90% of our food was fried, chicken, bacon, ham, fish and a big portion of the vegies, okra, potatoes, squash and others. Oh it was all so good. I see all these resturants that say Homecooking or Grandma's ect. None of them are like my home or grandma's cooking.

[floyd]

Originally Posted by theresa p

GREAT stories!!! and i'll bite---what is a toe sack?

Where I come from it was called a "tote sack" which was a burlap bag, often saved from buying 50lbs of potatoes or similar comodities.