Okay, want to save on buying shortening? Want to keep away for all the nasty hydrogenated stuff? Read on!

My area Food lion had ground beef on sale last week for .98 lb. It was an amazing find even though it was for the 73% lean beef. Well, I am sure every one knows about how to defat ground beef to make it more lean buy pouring boiling water over it right? Well, that is what I did with all 18lbs of ground beef that I bought. I cooked the ground beef in water, drained it, reserving the water it was in, and poured the boiling water over the ground beef, reserving that liguid which also had fat. This takes a few pans when using 18 lbs of ground beef. While the liquid cooled, I packaged up my now lean ground beef into meal size portions and put in the freezer. Once the liquid was cool enough, I put it in the fridge to solidify. Once solid, I took the pan out of the fridge, took the now solid fat out of the water still in the pan. Dumped out the water, rinsed out the pan, refilled with water and added the solid fat. I brought it to a boil and then let cool and refridgerated again to solidify. I repeated the steps until the water no longer has little bits of stuff in it. What you have left is a pristine white, no smell, solid lard to use in baking, cooking, etc. I ended up with 2.5 lbs of lard. My lean ground beef I figured ended up being 1.18 lb after cooking down, but I got lard out of the deal. I don't need to buy any. A great savings if I do say so myself. You can find probably better instructions on The Family Homestead. I used my lard in a roll recipe the other day and it turned out beautifully. To think of what I would have had to pay for that much shortening... WOW.

I just bought almost 30 lbs of ground beef, at 40 cents a pound I couldn't turn it down! I am definitely going to try this. It will come in handy come doughnut making time over the holidays! I think I'll do it in portions though, I don't know if I have the patience to do that much at once haha

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I have a tub of rendered bacon fat and a tub of rendered chicken fat - both of which I use regularly! I cook our bacon on an electric skillet, which has a drain into a small tub, so when it's cooled a bit, I strain it through a fine screen, and then put into my tub o' bacon fat.

I like making chicken stock out of good, farm chicken, which has a lot more and better fat than store chickens. I just boil the whole chicken for a few hours and then strain the stock into a large pitcher. When it cools, I remove the fat off the top, and again, into my tub o' chicken fat.

I use both in cooking often instead of butter, if I want the taste to compliment my food - the chicken fat is great instead of butter in homemade mashed potatoes, and I love the bacon fat to cook greens in

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I never have used lard. I wouldn't have thought of that,, DOES sound like a lotta work, but good deal!

WOW,, 40 cents a POUND!!! That's NICE. That many pounds would now last us for MANY MANY months, since we've had to cut out beef so much

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Think big! Change the world! One A.R.K at a time.

I was thrilled when I saw that, cleaned out the case haha, put me over my budget for the week but will work itself out quick. On average I use about 2 lbs of ground hamburger a week, so I'm good for a while now, and much better than the $1.50/$2 or so that it usually is.

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I remember my grandmothers doing those kind of processes. I save the bacon lard and it keeps quite well. I use it to fry hashbrowns, it also works great for making biscuits. I use the chicken lard to make dressing/stuffing, rice and potatoes. Never had considered saving the hamburger lard though. Will have to try it, once I clear out space in the fridge to store it.

This year I'm going to be redering lard. Every year we buy a pig and have it butchered to help fill the freezer. This year we bought 2 seeing as the kids can eat us out of house and home! I figured I might as well see if I can render the lard from the pigs instead of telling the butcher that I don't want it seeing as I've already paid for this lard when I bought the pigs. Just didn't make sense to be going out to the grocery store and buying it again when I needed it for baking.

I already save my bacon grease to use in other cooking and to smear on my baked pototos before I put them in the oven.

I rendered bacon fat once. than I would use it anytime I would make fried potatoes. It really did make a difference in taste. I always forget to do it. I never thought of doing it off of hamburger or chicken. Might have to give it a try.

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