Food trends come and go — but fats have endured more controversies and changes than most. While it's possible that the move away from ethnic and country roots contributed to the fall of lard in the American diet — what with the desire to be modern, buy food in the supermarket and drink milk out of the carton — lard really began to get a bad name when research came out in the 1950s and '60s alleging that animal fats contributed to heart disease.

Doctors and health-policy wonks took their cues from a diet researcher named Ancel Keys (famous for K-rations), who believed that Americans succumbed to more heart disease because their consumption of fats had escalated compared to that of their parents.

But countries famous for some of the grandest cooking in the world — France, China, Spain, Mexico, and even Italy, famous for its use of olive oil — rely on animal fats to add flavor and texture to many of their traditional dishes. And those animal-fat loving countries have neither the obesity nor the levels of heart disease that we have in the United States.

Lard holds up well under high heat and has antimicrobial properties — French farmhouses have long made confit of goose, duck or pork and sealed the rich meat with its own fat. Some cheese makers smear lard on the cheese to prevent deterioration.

It is true that we are fatter than Americans were in the past, but our ancestor's diets weren't all that lean. Anthropologists think that our early hunter-gatherer relatives ate a diet with a higher percentage of fat than we eat today. Of course, escaping from wild beasts, killing mastodons with a spear and keeping warm in a cave required a lot of readily available calories. Our most recent predecessors were agrarian, and a man who plowed the fields behind a mule needed a lot of fuel. Likewise, the farmwoman who hauled water and split wood worked hard physically.

Some think our increase in heart disease can be linked more directly to our sedentary lifestyle, chronic inflammation and the effects of stress than to the presence of unprocessed animal fats in our diets. In fact, in spite of all the government pronouncements and campaigns to encourage Americans to eat less fat, the National Academy of Sciences has noted that there is still little hard evidence to warrant the recommendation that all Americans eat a low-fat diet. According to Wikipedia, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization dedicated to reviewing randomized controlled trials of health care, has concluded that low-fat diets have had no significant effect on mortality.

As many of the food trends of the last 50 years have changed — moving back to the earth, eating locally and choosing simple, natural foods — animal fats have also been making a comeback. And evidence is accumulating that it may not be fat itself that is to blame for our problems, but rather the types of fat and the amounts of it we choose to eat.

Solid vegetable shortening, which became popular around the middle of the 20th century, was discovered when researchers hydrogenated cottonseed oil in the hopes of finding a way to make soap and candles. They noticed how much it resembled lard, and so marketed it as a cooking oil. The name they gave it was Crisco — a contraction of "crystallized cottonseed oil."

Solid vegetable shortening was seen as the fat of the future, a replacement for the animal fats that were suspected of causing heart disease. The fact that it has a long shelf life and reduces costs for commercial bakers didn't hurt either.

Unfortunately, we now know that vegetable shortenings that are solid at room temperature — or hydrogenated — are full of what are called trans fats. There is plenty of evidence that trans fats raise bad cholesterol (LDL) and lower the more protective cholesteral (HDL). Dr. Clyde Yancy, president of the American Heart Association, said in a July 26, 2008 article in The New York Times that just a 2 percent increase in trans fat intake results in a 25 percent increase in the likelihood of developing coronary heart disease.

Trans fats are also being blamed for our obesity epidemic. In fact, many scientists now insist that no level of trans fat is safe.

So what was once the fat that was going to save us is now banned at Mickey D's, in New York City, and in the state of California. Even Santa Fe's La Fonda Hotel and Rio Chama Steakhouse have stopped using trans fats.

What, then, can replace the now widely used partially-hydrogenated vegetable shortening for baking and frying?

Although she acknowledges that "real lard" — lard that has not been adulterated by the hydrogenation process — is hard to find, Jennifer McLagan, author of Fat: An Appreciation of a MisunderstoodIngredient, with Recipes, writes that "the tide is turning for pork fat. The realization of the dangers associated with trans fats has caused many of us to reconsider the benefits of lard."

New York Times dining editor Pete Wells refers to lard as "the most elegant fat I've ever met." Many find it to be best fat for frying chicken because of its ability to withstand high heat — and it also makes unsurpassed pastry crusts. Many prefer the crispness of a lard piecrust to the tenderness of an all-butter crust while others swear that the best crusts combine the attributes of the two.

Still, it's hard to shake the scary feeling that lard isn't good for us. But relative to commercially produced shortening, lard almost begins to look like a health food — when eaten in moderation and when it's not hydrogenated, as is most of the shelf-stable lard lining grocery store shelves.

Finding what McLagan calls "real lard" is difficult in many communities. Northern New Mexicans are fortunate because we have Mexican butchers who produce real lard and sell it cheaply. We also have local meat producers who sell leaf fat at the Santa Fe Farmers Market so we can make lard at home .

Casa Verde Grazers, with a booth Saturdays at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, often has leaf lard fat.

To render lard, grind it or chop it — this is easiest when then the lard is partially frozen — and put it in a 300-degree oven in a shallow casserole. Stir it often, and cook until the lard melts and the cracklings, called chicharrones in Spanish, are floating.

For a roasted pork flavor, render the lard in a 350-degree oven until the cracklings are brown. Cook until the cracklings sink to the bottom.

Strain your rendered lard through cheesecloth or a paper coffee filter. Cool and refrigerate for up to two months or freeze.

Frozen lard lasts for more than a year. Save the cracklings or chicharrones to enrich cornbread, burritos or tamales. Home-rendered lard adds wonderful flavor to baked goods like cornbread and bizcochitos and enriches refried beans.

For a complete demonstration on rendering leaf lard and making a pie crust, log onto /www.marthastewart.com/recipe/honey-pie.

RECIPES

This is a simple custard pie that will taste intensely of the variety of honey chosen. This recipe makes two 9-inch pie crusts. Freeze the extra crust for another use.

HONEY PIE

(Makes 1 pie)

For the crust:

3/4 cup lard, frozen

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and frozen

6 tablespoons ice water (more if needed)

For the filling:

1 cup honey, preferably organic wildflower

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Put flour, salt and sugar a large bowl and stir to combine. Add butter and frozen lard; toss with a fork until coated with flour mixture. Using a pastry blender, cut butter and lard into the flour until it resembles a coarse meal. Working quickly, drizzle 6 tablespoons ice water into the mixture, and toss with a fork to combine. If the dough seems dry, add more ice water, one tablespoon at a time, until it just holds together.

Gather dough into a ball and divide into two equal pieces. Shape each piece into a disc and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 disc for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day. Freeze remaining dough for another use.

Roll out dough between 2 pieces of wax paper into a 13-inch round. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate, pressing it into the edges. Trim to a 1-inch overhang all around. Crimp edge and prick bottom of pie shell using the tines of a fork. Cover with plastic wrap; chill pie shell until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare filling: Heat honey in a medium saucepan until warm; remove from heat; stir in butter. Place eggs, vanilla, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; whisk to combine, add honey mixture. Pour into prepared pie plate, and bake until center is set, about 1 hour.

(Recipe from marthastewart.com)


CHOUX PASTE BEIGNETS

(Makes about 20 beignets)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup unsalted butter, diced

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon pastis (substitute anisette or other liqueur)

4 cups lard, melted

Combine the sugar and fennel seeds in a spice grinder and grind until powdery. Place mixture in a shallow dish. Set aside.

Pour the water into a small saucepan and add the butter and salt. Place the pan over medium-low heat and stir to melt the butter. As soon as the butter is melted, increase the heat and bring to a boil. When the mixture boils, remove the pan from the heat, add the flour all at once, and stir until well mixed.

Return the pan to low heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture is very smooth and comes away cleanly from the sides of the pan, about 2 minutes. Let the mixture cool slightly.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the pastis or other liqueur. Add about half the egg mixture to the pan. Stir until it is completely incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining egg mixture and stir until you have a smooth, shiny mixture again.

Place lard in a deep saucepan and clip a kitchen thermometer to the side. Heat lard over medium-low heat until it reaches 375 degrees. Carefully drop a few small teaspoonfuls of beignet mixture into the fat; they will double in size. Cook, turning occasionally, until they are a dark golden color, 6 to
7 minutes. Drain the beignets on paper towels and then roll them in the fennel sugar.

Continue cooking until all the dough is used up. When you have cooked and coated all the beignets, place any remaining sugar in a fine-mesh sieve and dust the beignets again. Cool, strain, and reuse the fat.

(Recipe from Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan)


Rendered bacon is essentially lard with more intense flavors. Author Jennifer McLagan swears that the "smoky, salty taste of bacon matches well with the ginger and cinnamon." I concur. But our tasters were evenly split: four loved the cookies, and three found the bacon flavor too pronounced.


BACON FAT SPICE COOKIES

(Makes 20-24 cookies)

1-1/4 cups flour

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup bacon fat

2 tablespoons molasses

1 egg


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, the salt and the spices in a food processor and pulse to mix. Add the bacon fat, molasses and egg and pulse until the mixture forms a soft dough.

Take level tablespoons of the dough and roll them into balls. (Dampening your hands will make it easier to work with the dough.) Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Using a fork (dampening helps here, too), flatten the balls slightly, and sprinkle them with the remaining tablespoon of sugar.

Bake the cookies until they are beginning to brown around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool slightly on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack.

Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

(Recipe from Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan)

Consume in small amounts

Freshly rendered lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat and less cholesterol than butter — yet people who think nothing of eating butter are still put off by lard.

Commercial lard (the kind that comes in the blue box or tub) is hydrogenated, and therefore has the same faults as shortening. It also lacks flavor and should be avoided.

Good lard is that which is slowly rendered and unadulterated.

“Lard,” writes Pete Wells, quoting Corby Kummer (a senior editor of  The Atlantic Monthly) in a December 2005 article in The New York Times “contains just 40 percent saturated fat (compared with nearly 60 percent for butter. Its level of monounsaturated fat (the ‘good’ fat) is a very respectable 45 percent, double butter’s paltry 23 or so percent.”

Non-hydrogenated lard’s saturated fat contains one-third stearic acid, which is beneficial to cholesterol levels and circulation. Lard is also high in oleic acids and high in monounsaturated fatty acids. Lard has half the level of saturated fat of palm kernel oil or coconut oil, often touted as more healthful replacements for partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening.

Lard and butter both contain small amounts of natural trans fats — and anything that contains a half-gram or more must be labeled as containing trans fats. This is bad news for commercial bakers who would like to use natural fats in pastries they have been making with shortening. While they may taste better and be somewhat better for us, companies like Starbucks would like to have a label that reads “No trans fats” — which technically eliminates lard and butter.

While artificial trans fats are the real culprits, natural trans fats may be painted with the same brush. Consider that milk, beef and cheese all contain minute amounts of trans fats. Does that mean we all have to be vegans to be healthy?

In a March 7, 2007 article in The New York Times, Dale E. Bauman, a Cornell University professor of animal science, points out that the body uses natural trans fats to synthesize conjugated linoleic acid, a good fatty acid that could help prevent disease. That’s good news for those who aren’t ready to give up meat and dairy products.

Regardless of the good news about lard, though, we have to remember that it is a fat, and, like butter, should be consumed in small amounts.