Morning Metro: Powerplant Emissions, Rec-struction, and the Lard Murder Mystery
Decatur Metro | January 12, 2012
- Powerplants contribute to 72% of carbon emissions, and the top emitter is in GA! [AJC]
- Decatur Rec Center Construction – Week 2 [Be Active Decatur]
- Johns Creek launches new interactive map for residents [Johns Creek]
- 107 Applicants for DHS Football coach [Patch]
- Top Republicans want to overturn GA charter school ruling [GPB]
- Who killed lard? [Planet Money]
Photo courtesy of Be Active Decatur
The only time I ever saw Scott Peacock even approach being cross was when I made an offhanded comment about lard being unhealthy. In his southern gentlemanly way, he made it clear that I was sadly misinformed.
I think lard is on a comeback – I’ve been reading more and more articles/blogs about it – just yesterday I was looking for it at YDFM. Couldn’t find any but they did sell pig fat for making your own. Oh, and Crisco is not lard.
FYI: I’ve purchased it at Publix on N. Decatur Rd before.
Thanks!
I was talking about lard last night at dinner with my wife after I saw a flat bread recipe on the NPR website – looked really easy to make but called for lard and I could not find any at YDFM. Although making it at home looks very easy as well.
Crisco is not lard? “Crisco, fat in a can!” used to be its jingle and we nicknamed my baby brother that. (The whole thing: Crisco-fat-in-a-can)
What is the correct definition of lard? Of Crisco?
Definition from Dictionary.com – the rendered fat of hogs, especially the internal fat of the abdomen.
Definition from Wikipedia – Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms.
Crisco is some sort of science lab product using hydrogenated oils.
And Crisco is about as unhealthy as lard because its manufactured hydrogenated oils are mono-unsaturated instead of polyunsaturated? My nutrition facts fail me. I just remember that Crisco disappeared from modern kitchens because it was unhealthy. (But still good for cleaning ironworks and hinges evidently.)
The hydrogenation process that turns natural mono-unsaturated vegetable oils (relatively healthy, with one “cis” double bond in each chain) to saturated fats (with no double bonds, same as are found naturally in butter or lard) also makes trans-mono-unsaturated fats (with one “trans” double bond in each chain) as a byproduct. Those trans fats are considered unhealthy – even worse than saturated fats – these days.
from the label on my can of Crisco:
INGREDIENTS: soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils, mono and diglycerides, TBHQ and citric acid (antioxidants).
Somehow, that doesn’t sound all that much worse than hog belly fat.
What I meant to say is that hog belly fat doesn’t sound all that much than Crisco.
Of course, if you don’t eat pork for religious reasons, lard is to be avoided. I bet that’s one reason restaurants stopped using it. I guess we’ll have to start asking about it again.
Even after 20 years as a seafood-eating “almost-vegetarian,” I still find hidden ingredients like lard to be enormously frustrating and sometimes hard to spot. I try to be a gracious guest by not interrogating hosts about recipes, so there’s inevitable awkwardness when an innocuous-looking veggie dish turns out to feature chicken stock, tiny ham bits, etc. The trend away from lard is welcome in my book.
I’m a pescetarian too and I call sneaky meat particles–such as those that infiltrate many many otherwise perfectly fine and tasty Southern veggies–Stealth Meat.
I send my husband ahead of me at buffets and let him test the food for signs of Stealth Meat.
I was in North Georgia with friends and stopped in a meat and 3 for lunch. One was a vegetarian. She said she might have some green beans. I suggested she ask how it was cooked first. She did, and ordered something else.
“There’s no meat,” the waitress replied helpfully. “It’s just pinto beans smashed up with lard.”
Meatless in the Midwest: A Tale of Survival
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/dining/a-vegetarians-struggle-for-sustenance-in-the-midwest.html?pagewanted=2&sq=vegetarian%20midwest&st=cse&scp=1
We’re Eating Less Meat. Why? (Written by your boy Bittman, DM)
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/were-eating-less-meat-why/
The NYT has been on a vegetarian friendly kick lately. Last week it was a pretty neat vegan bodybuilder story, and the week before that,
My fingers revolted against me, and decided to hit “submit” before they were told to. Sneaky devils, I’ll have to start keeping a better eye on them.
Well, we Southern meat eaters call those veggies useless space wasters.
Speaking of Crisco – I have a 48 oz tub in my pantry if anyone wants it. I needed 1 cup for some cookies and Hubs overbought at Publix.
No worries. I think it lasts longer than uranium!
Actually, it doesn’t. the only time I ever use it is for baking (no deep-frying at home, too lazy to clean up afterward), and when I got ready to bake cakes at Christmas, I had to throw out a nearly-full 1-lb can which had turned a lovely taupe color.
Ewww! Not sure why my mother thought it was a staple but I have no urge to buy Crisco. I’m slightly intrigued by the renaissance of lard.
Renaissance of Lard would also be a kick-ass band name.
We didn’t know as much years ago as we do now, about the perils of hydrogenated oils. My mother always kept a 2-lb can of shortening in the cupboard next to the stove (Crisco or Snowdrift, another brand I think is now extinct). Also a quart or half-gallon bottle of corn or vegetable oil, an empty shortening can that held bacon grease, and an empty syrup can that held used oil. (With so much frying and deep-fat frying each week, re-using oil was routine.) I don’t remember her using lard very often. Possibly, vegetable shortening was considered healthier at that time; or maybe it was cheaper. We ate a lot of oleo, too, again not sure if that was nutrition or economy.
Similar to my home growing up – mom used Crisco – it was thought of as a healthier easier alternative to lard. We also used margarine instead of that unhealthy butter! So many things food wise went this direction – easier, faster, more shelf stable and of course profitable – and there is still so much processed crap out there. I rarely shop at a traditional grocery store – not when YDFM is 2 miles from my house.
Tonight I picked up some “Eden Farms” pig fat – going to make my own lard – then bake some tasty Coca flat bread!
My mom always had a coffee can (Yuban of course!) of bacon grease sitting around too! It got rancid fast! Oleo/margarine was used too–that bright fake yellow. The worst processed food from my childhood was instant mashed potatoes from potato flakes and instant potatoes au gratin. The frustrating thing was that my mother was a great cook when she wasn’t looking for “convenience”. She didn’t even work outside the home until we were nearly grown, so timing wasn’t an issue. I’m not sure that these instant foods were even that much quicker than the traditional cooking methods. I think it was the times, the advertising on TV, and the novelty of convenience foods that influenced her. I have to say that frozen mashed potatoes (whether “as is” or needing milk and butter added) are pretty darn tasty nowadays compared to those instant flakes.
And don’t get me started on commercial canned vegetables…..there’s so many vegetables that I had no idea could be anything but disgusting until I lived in California where so much was cooked fresh. I think my grandmother knew how to can with skill; my mother relied ont the store variety.
Again, very much the same in my home growing up – I’m from Ohio – so I am thinking this is not likely geographical. I make mashed potatoes now several times a year and would never think to use an instant mix but growing up that was the norm – my mom was also stay at home – had plenty of time to use real potatoes. It is the great American hoax and we are finally coming to realize that.
I think the lard is reading that Republicans want to revoke charter school status. What a joke.
Interesting that one of these articles talk about how much pollutants GA Power plants emit and all the comments relate to Crisco.