Is anyone else using lard now that butter is so expensive?

I really fancy a blackberry and apple pie with custard.

Unfortunately, being rather immobile at the moment, I am beginning to look like a lump of lard myself.

Are you still having problems?
It's been a long while, now.

I've always used half Stork margarine and half Trex for pastry and it's fine - using butter for pastry seems too ... indulgent? Maybe it's my post-war upbringing when butter just wasn't available much but I prefer to save it for my toast.

I`ve always used just lard for making pastry, still do. Also in the chip pan.

MissAdventure

A lot of what people think is not based on actual fact.
The healthiest way, probably, is not to cover good, nutritious food with pastry, because it isn't necessary.
I love a good pie, though.

I'm sure the cockroaches are okay. However, those in the know are becoming concerned about ultra-high processed food, of which margerine is one. The British eat a lot of UHPFs - more than most countries.

If you look at the ingredients on anything and there is more than one, you are getting things you may not be aware of. I have just looked on the side of a tin of tomatoes - even that has four ingredients. The combinations on the ultra-high processed foods may (not will) make you ill or fat.

Well, short of living on a farm and being totally self sufficient, we are probably all at risk, somewhere along the line.
Even some kefir is highly processed, apparently.

Callistemon21

I really fancy a blackberry and apple pie with custard.

Unfortunately, being rather immobile at the moment, I am beginning to look like a lump of lard myself.

Oh dear, Callistemon21, I hope you’ll recover soon.

Thank you Witzend
In the meantime, there's Wimbledon and I have taken up knitting again ?

I never use lard. Always butter or margarine for all baking.

I used to have Lard all the time, as my mother did before me.
Now I have moved to oils and butter. A little of each does us no harm does it?

What’s happened Callistemon? Whatever it is , get well soon.

I’m about to make a coffee victoria sandwich, ready for our barbecue tomorrow.

I too did not realise you were laid up Callistemon.
Get mobile soon ?

Lard! Gross animal fat.
Lard is made from 100 percent animal fat (usually pork) that has been separated from the meat. Most lard is made through a process called rendering, whereby the fatty parts of the pig (such as the belly, butt, and shoulder) are cooked slowly until the fat is melted. This fat is then separated from the meat. Once chilled, lard will solidify into a smooth, opaque substance that may or may not have a lingering pork taste, depending on how it's processed.
Oh yuk!

Thank you all!

I am scooting around on an office chair, damaging the paintwork, spending too much time on GN ?

Always use Trex (that's once a year for mince pies!)

CleoPanda, you have expressed my feelings about lard exactly. Disgusting stuff that will clog up your arteries.

Get well soon Callistemon

GrandmaSeaDragon

At Secondary school in the 60s, I remember the short crust pastry recipe was for half butter, half lard. Later on, I remember using half butter, half Trex. Nowadays, it’s ready made - good enough for Mary Berry, good enough for me!

I'm with you on that one except for mincepies then I use Mary Berry's all butter and icing sugar.
My parents made chips with beef dripping now you pay premium for triple cooked Dripping chips!

I don't think there is any evidence that lard actually does clog arteries, any more than any other form of fat.

The only time I ever buy lard is in the winter months when I make bird seed cakes for the bird table.

SUBSCRIBE

Artery-clogging saturated fat myth debunked
Written by Hannah Nichols on April 26, 2017
Among doctors and the public alike, there is a popular belief that dietary saturated fat clogs up the arteries and results in coronary heart disease. A new editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine says that this notion of saturated fat clogging a pipe is “just plain wrong.”

According to researchers, ‘the conceptual model of dietary saturated fat clogging a pipe is just plain wrong.’
The article is the result of a collaboration between a team of cardiologists, including: Dr. Aseem Malhotra, of Lister Hospital in Stevenage, in the United Kingdom; Prof. Rita Redberg, of the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine and editor of JAMA Internal Medicine; and Pascal Meier, of University Hospital Geneva in Switzerland and University College London, who is also the editor of BMJ Open Heart.

The team cited reviews that show no association between intake of saturated fat and a greater risk of heart disease, in order to support their argument against the existence of artery-clogging saturated fat.

“It is time to shift the public health message in the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease away from measuring serum lipids and reducing dietary saturated fat,” say the authors. Instead of focusing on lowering blood fats and cutting out dietary saturated fats, the importance of eating “real food,” partaking in regular physical activity, and minimizing stress, should all be emphasized.

That’s interesting MA I’m obviously behind the times in my thinking. I wonder why drs give give us statins? I have read they’re not beneficial to most people but drs keep prescribing them. I’ve also read the big culprit for blocked up arteries is sugar.
I’m still not going back to lard though, but I do love butter.

I don't understand it all myself, maddy.
Perhaps it's a "catch all" way of telling people not to sit stuffing their faces with food thats not good for them, in a way they understand?

It's all a mystery to me, really.

It is worth checking out how thinking changes, though, over the years.

MissAdventure
I can attest to that evidence. Many years ago when my cholesterol was ( probably still is) 9.6) my Dr suggested statins.
We had a long talk about them as I’m against them.
I promised him that I would stick to the no more than 20gm of saturated fat per day. I did this for 3 months. It came down 2 points.
Then he told me he doesn’t believe in statins neither does my dietitian friend.

That bears out advice to eat healthily - plenty of fruit, veg, with a limit on processed items.
Not too much fat (of any kind) or sugar, and little alcohol.
I suppose some people need it spelled out more bluntly. me, for one