Would you rather pay $1.50 for a small tin of Frito "bean dip," or $1.50 for a 12 oz can of refried beans to be used for the same purpose?

1. I have no idea what any of these are.
2. What does the Wizard of Oz have to do with any of it?

I would opt for the larger can and freeze whatever I don’t eat initially.

Guacamole and salsa. I hate beans.

@Buttonstc… can you freeze cooked beans?

Sure. Why not? Plus, refried beans have fat added to them as well, so no problem.

Freezing destroys the textures of some foods, like cheese.

It depends entirely upon the type of cheese.

But I’m not going to get into a protracted back and forth over $1.50.

The Q was what choice we would make. I answered it.

Is this a homework question? Do you want us to show our work?

And yes, you can freeze refried beans. Sometimes, when they are thawed, they need stirring, but the taste and texture essentially don’t change.

But I didn’t answer. If I liked the taste of the small can stuff better, due to spices used and/or texture, or if I wasn’t in a place where I could save the leftovers and it would go to waste, or if I was traveling and space was an issue, then I would choose the small can. The buck and a half isn’t going to break me because I enjoy the benefits of vast wealth.

@Buttonstc @canidmajor, Not everything can be frozen, and I had just always heard you can’t freeze cooked beans. It destroys the texture. I shall certainly be trying it from here on out. It would save me $50 a year. There is no reason for everyone to get all upset and suddenly take it all so seriously.

I was thinking back to a comment a jelly once made, that is most of us would not drive clear across the city to save 20% on a $10 item. On the other hand, we probably would to save 20% on a $1,000 item. I forget exactly the point he was making, but it was interesting.

What is with the nasty snark all the time @canidmajor?

@Dutchess_III: It’s not nasty snark all the time, sometimes it’s just humor and you take it wrong. It’s nasty snark this time because you have a habit of asking Qs with only one right answer and being disdainful of those who don’t post what you think they should.

And you have a self-admitted penchant for arguing for it’s own sake when the mood strikes you.

I have absolutely no idea of the source for not being able to freeze cooked beans due to change in texture.

Besides refried beans are no longer beans, per se, but basically bean mush (or pureed if you prefer). It’s pretty much going to be the same mush after freezing and thawing. What on earth would it change to?

People freeze soups with cooked beans in them all the time. I’m assuming that any texture change would occur in green string beans. But that’s not what’s used for refried beans, so either what you heard was wrong or you applied it to the wrong types of beans.

Where the hell was I arguing? I just learned you can freeze cooked beans! I’m not insisting that you can’t. I said I didn’t know that. I’d always heard it destroys the texture (which is why the cheese comment came in, but out of context I realize.) I guess it doesn’t destroy the texture, so whomever told me that, eons ago, was wrong. I’ll try it.. ”It would save me $50 a year.” How was that arguing?
And I don’t have any pre-formed opinion of this question, and there is nothing in any of my answers that suggests that I do.

Reading the rest of your response, @Buttonstc, wondering where I heard it: I used to get tons of monetary value in food stamps, and I’d trade the surplus food with a friend who was a beautification. She’d do my hair every few months, and I’d get a list from her and buy her groceries.
I had a deep freeze, and I’d put most of the groceries in the deep freeze for a week or so to hold them for her and to keep them on one place. I once bought canned beans, and she was miffed that I’d frozen them. She said it destroyed the texture. I just took her word for it. That was 25 years ago.
I now think she was wrong, and I stand corrected, and I’m glad to hear it.

I would find out @ragingloli‘s address and send a copy of ZardOz (One of my alltime favorite crappy sci-fi movies) while eating chips and salsa. I never have refried beans. Even when I eat mexican food, I get pinto or black beans, never refried.

Refried beans are pinto beans, @Jak. At least in American “Mexican” cusine. They’re just mashed up. They’re called frijoles refritos and someone just Anglicized the term into “refried.”

The question came about because I noticed that Rick had bought a tin of Fritoes bean dip. I’m pretty money conscious and I thought, “Dang it. I could make that for so much cheaper, using a can of refried beans (which I always have on hand,) add some extra butter and use an electric beater to mash them up fine and creamy.” But then I thought…we’d never eat it all. So, that brought up in my mind, which IS really the better value? So I asked this question.

Well, the answer now is, obviously, make a batch and freeze it. You get about 5 tins out of one 12 oz can for virtually the same money. That is the better value.

I thought you were the only one who eats them, @Dutchess_III?

What the hell are you adding to a 12 oz. can of refried beans to make 5 9 oz. batches of bean dip?

K, here we go again. I checked my ounces. Yes the bean dip was 9 ounces, but (upon checking) I see that a can of re fried beans is 16 ounces, not 12 (I was thinking beer!) So I could make a little less than 2 of the 9 oz cans. It would still be half the price. BUT we have to compare actual prices, too. I just assigned them the same monetary value for the purposes of this question.

Done?

And what do you mean, “I thought you were the only one who eats them?” That didn’t make any sense.

They’re not just mashed up pinto beans. They have ingredients added to them and are cooked again. Why in the hell would you assume I don’t know what refired beans are? They are CLEARLY not the same as just cooked pinto beans,
Here is a recipe to clear up any doubts for you on that score, in case you want to argue that you never heard of adding ingredients, or that you heard from a friend that you can just mash pinto beans and get refried beans.

I’ll check, @Jak. See what the ingredients are.

Why are you jumping into this bash train?

Your recipe sounds like mine @Jak, that I make for corn bread and beans. Onions, garlic, seasoning. Except I also simmer bacon down in mine. I cook and recook and they just get better and better. But I don’t use chicken broth, just water. Makes hella burritos. Nice to know I can freeze them.

I’m not bashing anything. I had a (what I considered) fun answer referencing @ragingloli‘s mention of the american symbol for ounce. And I honestly prefer plain old pintos. You are the one who had such temerity to try to tell me what is what. This is a social question, and I was just having a little fun. I don’t need a fucking buzzkill telling me what the hell refried beans are. You take too much on yourself. YOU go back and read, first what I wrote, then your condescending answer. Pintos are refried beans, sheeeesh.
Then you want to get all into it and talk about the freaking recipe. Just take your ass chewing like a man, admit you went way too deep on what should have been a light, fun thing because you don’t want to admit that you fucked up and took this crap to a place you shouldn’t have.
And if it’s because you don’t understand my reference, then just admit that too!
(And it’s not MY recipe. I just googled one to make the point that refried beans are NOT just mashed pinto beans, as you so ridiculously and pointlessly tried to assert.)

What are you taking about, @Jak? You said that when you eat Mexican you just get pinto beans, not refried beans. I said, refried beans ARE pinto beans (unless otherwise stated on the can)...just mashed up instead of left as individual beans. Sure they have extra spices in them, but so do the pinto beans you order at the restaurant. Who would want to eat plain beans with no flavorings? No salt or pepper or onions or something.

You didn’t believe me, and YOU showed me a recipe…. that actually proves exactly what I’m saying! They’re pinto beans! The recipe you gave me uses canned, pre cooked beans coarsely mashed with the back of a wooden spoon. Just because they add salt and onion for flavoring doesn’t mean they aren’t pinto beans.

It reminds me of my boyfriend in high school who once told me he’d do acid but not LSD.

You’re missing the point, and still wrong. And not worth my time. Let me try one last time with the smallest possible words. By your stubbornly blind insistence, rather than using tomato paste as an ingredient, I should just use a tomato. Tomoato past IS a tomato, just mashed up. So, though tomato paste is CLEARLY different from a tomato; by your account they are the same. DO YO UNDERSTAND NOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PINTO BEANS AND REFRIED BEANS?

Frito-Lay Bean Dip, no contest. For 2 reasons;

1. I used to write TV commercials for the stuff.
2. It tastes better on nachos than any other ref rued bean product I’ve ever tried.

LOL! It is good, creamy stuff, for sure @Pachy. Still I suspect I could do the same with a regular can of refried beans and adding butter and using a beater. I shall experiment soon and let you know.

I once asked a question about “fat free” refried beans..how could they be fat free if they’re beans, which are already fat free? I learned that in regular refried beans they actually add fat, to make them a little more creamy, more attractive.

Which explains why fat free refried beans are not exactly creamy and I don’t like them. Until they’re mixed with..sour cream, or cream cheese or bacon fat…ummm!

Genuine Mexican refried beans (as made by real Mexican home cooks or restaurant owners rather than some food production facility) are made adding Lard. But Americans would pitch a sh*t fit at the mere mention of Lard, even tho it’s a natural unadulterated product from a pig, but thought nothing of adding all kinds of vegetable based hydrogenated fats. Of course nowadays we know that’s far more deadly than Lard could ever be.

Most ethnic recipes, have been eaten for centuries without killing their folks, so should simply be left as is. But American agribusiness just can’t resist “improvements”. Ha ha.

@Dutchess

I just have to ask. You mentioned that she was miffed that you put canned beans in the freezer. I think I would be also. Canned food is designed to not spoil without freezing or refrigeration. Who the hell freezes cans of food? And why?

I would buy a can of pinto beans for a dollar, mash them up, and fry them myself. If I didn’t want to eat them all fried, I’d set aside half and make soup, or add them over rice. I might use black beans for all of that over pinto, but both work.

But, if you like the already made in a can stuff, then the price is still pretty good. I’d probably get the larger can on the off chance I want to eat the same thing within a week’s time. It will still be good if kept in the fridge. Use it for something besides chips. My MIL used to make a pressed sandwich with received beans, ham and cheese. The beans are high in protein.

The beans in the tin.
Why?
I’m not gonna put any work into my snack food.
I am sure making tortilla chips is much cheaper than buying bagged chips, ain’t doin that either

Wow. It’s just beans guys.

@anniereborn Whole beans in a can to use the rest of the beans a different way. That’s why. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine if she just buys the ready made bean dip. I hate cleaning pots and pan so I can see the appeal. I buy ready made salsa, which I could make from scratch, but I don’t. I would make the soup, if that’s what I’m making with the rest of the beans, on the spot, in the same pan, and save it for later or give it to my husband. Maybe her husband will like it?

At least I didn’t suggest starting with dry beans. Lol.

For me, it’s about taste rather than price. I rarely eat refried beans anymore and I hate to cook. But when I make nachos, one of my guilty pleasures, I always use F-L bean dip. It’s ridiculously overpriced but I just like the taste.

@Dutchess_III:
” (I wish they’d make 6 oz cans of refried beans, even if they were more than half the price of a 12 oz can. I’m the only one who eats them and I never make it through more than ⅓ of the can before I have to toss it.)”

Freezing canned goods is insane, IMO, @Buttonstc. It makes an already preserved food container swell, and the swelling can only weaken the integrity of the seal.

This thread plays out on an almost Seinfieldian level of absurdity.

…but nowhere near the absurdity of the 2016 campaign season. It’s a nice diversion from THAT.

It’s the next best thing to a derailment, @Darth_Algar, since the Mods are now removing unproductive content.
And hey, it follows the spirit of the OP, where arguing for the sake of argument and focusing the discussion on the minutiae are methods of keeping the most superficial of discussions running.

I meant in my family, @ibstubro, which consists of me and Rick. Rick doesn’t eat them so I can’t open a can of beans and plan to use the whole can up cooking for two over the next 3 days, so I always have to throw a lot out. But now I know I can freeze them. And don’t start screeching at me about Rick’s motivations for not eating beans. He is not a health nut, not by any means. I consider the beans the main course, he prefers beef or pork as the main course.

@JLeslie A long time ago I tried mashing up, and then “frying,” some of the beans I had made the day before. It was a fruitless ha ha endeavor. It simply made them unworthy to eat for a snotty 1st world consumer, like me. The term “refried” is an Anglo play on the original Spanish word ” frijoles refritos” which means Mexican beans. Nobody fries anything.

@Buttonstc, re: the lard. I figured as much. Lard is good! I think lard would be good in home made pinto beans…in fact, I guess that’s what I’m ending up with when I simmer down bacon, with lots of fat in it (I buy a box of “ends and pieces specifically for my bean recipes,) in my beans.
I think McDonalds used to use lard to fry their fries. Man, they were SO GOOD. So much better than the insipid stuff they have today. Then, yeah, people started freaking, so they switched over to beef tallow in the mid 80’s, and it’s been down hill from there. They replaced beef tallow with veggie oil in the 90’s….and people have just kept getting fatter and fatter and fatter since then. Go figure.
As to why I put them in the freezer: I covered it briefly in the original comment I made about it. I bought about $600 a month in food for the daycare (this was in the late 80’s.) After bringing home 5 shopping carts of food every month, I had a LOT of food in my cupboards and refrigerator and not much room for anything else. As I said, I put all of the food I got her in the freezer, if it could be frozen, simply to keep them together in one spot until she picked them up. That way I didn’t have to hunt the food down, a week later, that I got for her.
Don’t freak out about the daycare / food stamp “discrepancy.” As a licensed daycare provider with the state they reimbursed me for the food I fed the day care. For the amount of kids I had they had a maximum refund of $600, and I used every penny of it, which was far more than I needed, just like food stamps.
I replaced ALL of that 5 line description with the one word, “Food Stamps,” for clarity and brevity..

@Darth_Algar right? See how, in my post above, carefully I tried to cover all the bases of previous wording that might come back to haunt me? This place is nuts sometimes.

Oh, I need to address one last thing, to @anniereborn: I’m not the one who comes home with junk snack food. I never have. I don’t buy the chips—I don’t even know what the chip aisle looks like!—and I certainly am not going to make any. If it’s here, I might eat it as a meal, like I did last night. Not my first choice, but it’s certainly the easiest and it gets the job done.

“The name is a direct calque of Spanish frijoles refritos, refritos meaning “well-fried”, and not “fried again” as might be assumed from the use of re- in English. The prefix re- could be used as an intensifier in Latin, as evident in e.g. resplendent, a meaning that has been inherited by Spanish alongside the more common meaning indicating repetition.”
I think the traditional addition of lard reflects the traditional method of preparing the beans – frying. @JLeslie would surely know this, given her husband’s heritage?

I would think you could push the beans out of the can like cranberry sauce, slice and store in the fridge safely for at least a week, @Dutchess_III, even if you didn’t freeze.

Do you have a link for us @ibstubro? I found so many different ones, saying different things.

@ibstubro I had almost 0 space in my refrigerator for extra stuff, after doing the monthly grocery shopping.
I also had a food rack in my basement, that I’d picked up, with permission, from the back of a convenience store. They were throwing it away. That’s where I kept cans and cans and cans of surplus canned goods that wouldn’t fit in the kitchen cabinets, and they were full after shopping.
I had no space anywhere else for extra food except the deep freeze and it was easier to keep the vast majority of what I bought for her in one place rather than scattered all over, Furthermore, IT’S OK IF THE BEANS WERE FROZEN!
Got that? Or do you want to continue to rehash a system I had in place 25 years ago in a situation far, far removed from the one I am in today and will never find my self in again??

Above all, I repeat, IT’S OK IF THE BEANS WERE FROZEN!

What are you going on about, @Dutchess_III.

I suggested that you do not have to use an opened can of refried beans within 2–3 days today. If I were not going to use the whole can, I’d push the beans out of the can, slice off what I would use, and refrigerate the rest for, probably, a week to 10 days at least.

As to the…oddity of freezing canned goods, Fluther is an on-line question and answer forum. I think @Buttonstc is right to ask, “Who the hell freezes cans of food?”
Cans frozen accidentally, such as those left in a car or basement in sub-zero temperatures, can present health problems.
Set the record straight.

Oh, I see. Yes, I did over react because I didn’t realize you had completely lost track of the thread of the conversation. I thought you were suggesting yet another way for me to have stored the 4 or 5 cans of refried beans I got when I shopped for my friend, when I was trading food for hair cuts and colors.

Now I see that you were instructing me how to store an already open can of beans in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days. Wow. Well, you say a week. I feel iffy on the fourth day and that’s when I throw them out.

But since you asked the question again ”Who the hell freezes cans of food?” I will explain it for the fouth time: I had extra money for food, but nothing else. I would go grocery shopping for a beautician friend and buy her food in exchange for getting my hair done. I had no extra space in which to store the food I got her, until she could get it, except in the deep freeze. I put everything that could be frozen in there, in one box, to keep it all in one place so I wouldn’t have to got hunting through two or 4 different places to find the food a week later.

Before you ask any more questions, like like, “Why did you have extra money for food and nothing else,” or “Why didn’t you just store it with all your other food in the same cabinets” ” please check here (right above your post) and here, where I explained all of this in depth. Also, here where I orginally answered @Buttonstc‘s same question.

If you want, I can cut a paste the relevant comments, instead of asking you to read it all “again.”

Coming in late:

I don’t care for Frito Bean Dip, personally. I’d buy the refried beans and make my own five layer taco dip. It’s better. And there would not be leftovers.

Five layer dip is good stuff, Maynard. We only make it at Superbowl time. Last year I finally thought of giving half to my son and his family right away, so it doesn’t go to waste.

@ibstubro Beyond that one time I’ve never frozen canned goods. Had no reason to. You can stop with the instruction now.

See your post directly above my ”cranberry sauce” comment, @Dutchess_III.
“I can’t open a can of beans and plan to use the whole can up cooking for two over the next 3 days, so I always have to throw a lot out. But now I know I can freeze them”

”...completely lost track of the thread of the conversation.”?

As I stated, the information on freezing canned goods was not for you, personally, but to refute the implied contention that it was a safe practice for other Fluther users.

Don’t know. Other things to do. Other irons in the fire. Really tired. Knackered out. Not tracking. Out of humor. Bye niw.

You said, “I would think you could push the beans out of the can like cranberry sauce, slice and store in the fridge safely for at least a week, @Dutchess_III….” I know I can refrigerate the extra refried beans for a few days. I’ll eat them in whatever dish over 3 days, but I never finish off all that’s left so it gets tossed.

From now on I’ll freeze half of it after I open the can. Yay!

What are these “leftovers” of which you people speak?

I know, @Seek! I know! Mind blowing. I never had them either when I was cooking and had a family.

They are just fried once. Cooked in a pan.

If you want to make them buy Bush’s pinto beans (I like that brand for pinto) and make sure it doesn’t have any special seasoning. Mash the beans with the liquid the beans come in with a potato masher, or you can use one of those hand blender thingies. We add about a heaping tablespoon of diced onion to a little oil in the pan. Don’t let the onion brown, just till the oil heats up, and then add the beans. Cook on medium to medium-high, keep an eye on how it’s bubbling. Move the beans around every 3–4 minutes to keep the bottom and sides from burning to the pan. It doesn’t burn easily initially because it’s very liquid.

When it’s just short of being how thick you like it, turn off the heat and let it sit for a minute.

Stir again.

I use a nonstick pan.

You don’t have to add any onion if you prefer not to.
I sometimes just mash the beans right in the pan as they just start cooking out of laziness. I just try to not harm my nonstick surface with the masher.

So it kind of sounds like the point of the oil is to saute (fry) the onions and whatever else (peppers maybe) so they’re about as soft as the beansand the the flavors are infused through the oil Then you add your precooked, mashed up beans and mix it all up and simmer a bit to infuse the flavors through the beans. Man, my mouth is watering!

How much oil do you use? And what kind? Let me guess..LARD! Probably not. But I had a friend who married a 2nd generation Mexican American, and her MIL taught her to make home made tortillas, and she insisted on using bacon grease rather than Crisco, or whatever.)

When I make onion soup I always reserve the butter that I sauteed my onions in and use it later on toasted breads. So yum.

Diced fresh onion, packaged “fresh” diced onion (like they sell in jars at the market) or dried diced onion?

Sorry, it makes a difference.

I’ll go with fresh onions, @Seek.

I am SO doing this! Onions and some peppers of some sort. What else….?

Fresh onions. And, I don’t brown them, just heat them for 20–30 seconds before adding the beans. They soften and disappear as they cook with the beans. I don’t put in any onions sometimes, and I make them without oil sometimes too. I don’t like a lot of added flavor.

The oil is more for the pan, but I don’t think it makes much difference really. I just use enough oil to barely coat the pan. You can add more onion and oil to taste obviously. You can use lard too. My Mexican MIL never does. But, when she makes Frijoles Charros, basically a type of bean soup, she makes it with bacon fat, and bacon on top.

I don’t know what the FritoLay bean dip tastes like. The recipe I gave you will be like Mexican restaurant side dish beans, or if you just cook them longer, they get thicker, and more like bean dip or what is spread on things like sopes (so-pays).

So…if you make them without onions or oil, what are they then? And how do you make them?

The FritoLay dip is good, just smooth and creamy so you can scoop it up. They probably add extra fat of some kind. Mashed pinto beans alone are too stiff and break the scoop (the chip.)

^^Then add the oil. I personally wouldn’t do more than two tablespoons to one regular can of beans. You don’t need a lot though. If you like it very smooth use one of those hand blender thingies or an actual blender if you don’t have the Emerson kind. You may not be happy with the potato masher if you want it very smooth. It takes a while for it to cook. Maybe 10+ minutes? I’m not sure, I just know it always takes longer than I expect for the water to steam out.

And a whole minced onion. And a dash of chili powder. And some salt, with black olives and cheese on top.

Dammit, I’m hungry now

Where does the whole minced onion come from?

From one tablespoon not being enough.

MOAR ONIONS!

If you want it like the Mexican restaurant in my town, use lard instead of oil.

I hate onions.

@Seek Oh. Lol.

@Tropical_Willie It’s also Mexican to use Mazola. A lot of Mexicans don’t use lard. I have never seen my MIL use lard in rice or beans. I ate more pork fat living in the South than when living with my MIL. When I eat out Mexican or Cuban with my vegetarian friends they always ask if dishes have lard. Rarely do the restaurants say (or maybe they aren’t admitting) that they use lard in beans or rice. In TN they put bacon in your green beans. Drives me crazy. My Ecuadorean exboyfriend, his family used Crisco. The solid stuff.

Never too many onions! I can put a few beans in my onions if I _have_to.

I think lard went out in the 40’s or 50’s because of over active imaginations. I have to try to remember to see if they even have any at the grocerty store next time I go. I’d be interested in seeing the differences between it, and say, Crisco, when frying potatoes. I’ve heard it puts a really yummy flavor into the food.

I agree that lard is probably traditional in refried beans. It’s adds, well, a porky flavor.

In the 1970’s when we had a hog butchered it included 4–5 gallons of lard. We had periodic fish frys where we fried catfish from the Mississippi River in lard. And I’m still here to tell about it.

Of course, lard is still available at the grocery. It comes in smaller and smaller packages and now is usually in a 1# block like non-sticked butter. There is reportedly no better pie crust than that made with real lard.

Well, it’s not like it’s bad for you, anyway. Dang it. I need to check with the grocery store!

I love pork, but I don’t like “pig” in everything. I hate it with green vegetables, except that I like bacon pieces in some salads. I don’t need or want it in baked beans, black beans, refried beans, none of them.

I’ve also heard lard makes great pie crust. I’d be willing to try that. Maybe I already have? It’s probably similar to fat and cholesterol as butter. I don’t see much difference health wise between the two.

@JLeslie

You’re absolutely right. Either in Moderation are fine.

Here’s the story of who killed Lard:
.
.
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/02/03/146356117/who-killed-lard
.
.

@Buttonstc Interesting. Cottonseed, Palm oil and coconut oil I was always told are bad for me. Now, the fad is coconut oil for health. My MIL is taking a teaspoon a day to help lower her cholesterol. We’ll see if it works. She also changed her diet three other ways, so it don’t be extremely accurate, but whatever, I’m still interested. I’m afraid to take coconut oil like medicine. I also have a hard time imagining oil so saturated is better for me than unsaturated. I mean me specifically with my body’s inability to process fats well.

I also personally don’t completely buy into hydrogenated fats being more evil than animal fat and cholesterol. Just like I don’t think high fructose corn syrup is worse than sugar. Just my own thing, I don’t expect people to agree with me. I do opt for the real thing when it comes to maple syrup, I don’t use stuff like Log Cabin that is basically HFCS with flavoring. I was thinner when I drank soda regularly.

I don’t eat meat or animal products, @JLeslie, so I share your distaste for ‘pork in everything”. Lately the trend has been, ‘If all else fails, throw some bacon on it.’

That said, the problem with most modern-day lard is that it’s been processed to the point that it’s lard-gly just another tasteless fat. The pigs are bred to produce meat as tasteless as possible, and the lard is processed to remove as many distinguishing characteristics as possible.

@Buttonstc‘s article references a restaurant that rendered and used it’s own lard. I’m sure the food was glorious! If you partake of animal products and have not tried farm lard, it’s worth searching out an organic source, like a country butcher shop. The exact same butcher shops that butchered our hogs 50 years ago are still there today. Their lard still imparts a quality that can’t be duplicated for deep frying and seasoning.

There are Soul Food or Southern Heritage brands – Glory Foods comes to my mind – that still use lard in seasoning. I know, because I avoid them like the plague.
:-(
lol

@ibstubro Not only are there a lot of vegetarians out there, there are a lot of meat eaters who don’t eat pork. I have three friends/acquaintances who don’t, off the top of my head, not related to health, and then 4 people who got rid of it because of a diet they decided to follow due to health. This is outside of the vegetarians I know. This is outside of the Jews I know who are kosher or semi-kosher. This is outside of my MIL and FIL who aren’t eating pork the last three weeks, because they started some health kick (it won’t last).

I just feel strongly vegetables should be vegan 90% of the time. No cheese, no meat, no butter. If you want butter add your own on your plate. There is a 10% exception I allow for.

I don’t eat much meat, and port is my least favorite. But I eat butter. I read somewhere that lard is healthier than butter. Makes sense.

Breaking News….. Hubs is buying lard at the grocery store as we speak. I shall return with the verdict.

It looks exactly like Crisco, exact same texture. Slightly different flavor (I used to eat Crisco straight from the can sometimes, as a kid, like a spoonful every so often, so I know of whence I speak.) We’ll see if that slight flavor difference amounts to anything when I fry some potatoes in it. I usually use butter.

It kind of freaks me out that it doesn’t have to be refrigerated, though! I never thought twice about Crisco not being refrigerated but that’s what I grew up with as a kid. Are there, like, NO animal bits left at all?

Well, the whole thing is refined animal fat. It’ll go bad after months and months, but it won’t harbour bacteria like animal muscle tissue will.

Think of it like beef jerky. Animal part yes, refrigeration no. Still good.

Lard is pure fat without any moisture and moisture is necessary for bacterial growth/spoilage.

When I was a kid a butchered hog came with a 5 gallon plastic food-grade covered pail ⅔–¾ full of lard. It sat on the floor in our unfinished basement, year round. About the time they ordered a new hog butchered, it was time to have a big fish fry and try to use the end of last year’s lard up. About once a year, so our lard was still unchanged after a year of cool storage.

From my experience so far, lard is more like coconut oil than butter or Crisco. I’ve not been around lard for a long time.

And keep in mind, the lard you get at the supermarket – just like the pork meat – bears only a passing resemblance to the lard our ancestors rendered in huge kettles from hogs that ate whatever didn’t eat them first.

@ibstubro

You’re absolutely right. There is a significant difference with minimally processed lard from pastured (raised outdoors rather than commercial pens) animals.

Minimally processed lard has the same classification as olive oil.

There are some other surprising health facts contained here:
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http://ediblesouthshore.com/online-magazine/fall-2015/whats-cooking-loving-lard/
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And there has been quite a resurgence in consumer interest in heritage breed pigs raised the way nature intended. More relatively unknown facts below.
¥ ¥ ¥ ¥ ¥

http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/6-reasons-to-buy-heritage-pork-from-small-farms

This is a good read, even if you don’t…
Render your own Lard

In all honesty there are a lot of Crockpot recipes for lard, and I’d try making my own if I ever had a hankerin’ to consume dead pig parts.
:-D

Can you imagine the taste of the lard from a hog raised on farm scraps and rendered over a wood fire?

If you’re looking for Heritage Pork? Ask a hunter. The same butcher that processes their deer processes hogs from local farms the rest of the year. Probably not significantly higher priced than the supermarket, if at all.

There’s also a website where you can put in your zip code and find local farms and which products they sellwithin a 25–100 mile radius.

www.localharvest.com

Bookmarked @ibstubro.

Thanks @Buttonstc!

I’m on the hunt for pork fat now. I may be able to buy it direct from a slaughterhouse in the next town but I’m waiting for a call back.
Your link has the fat listed at $7 a pound @Buttonstc! Isn’t that kind of expensive? What do you think?

I have a yummy banana bread recipe that calls for Crisco. What do you think would happen if I used my store-bought lard instead?

HA! Found a butcher about 20 miles from here, will sell it for $.25 a pound! Yay me.

Wouldn’t it be funny if I developed a rep as an amazing cook, and everybody is going, “What is her secret?” And I don’t tell anybody except in my will and they all freak out. ha ha!

Can you just cook up some yummy bacon for breakfast and save the fat?

@JLeslie Bacon fat has salt (including nitrates) and tastes like smoke.

What @Tropical_Willie said. Look through some of the links above. There are specific parts of the pig, the back fat and something else, that provide the best fat for rendering.

Also, you’d have to fry up a TON of bacon to get enough to bake with, or anything else.

My daughter was reading some of my Facebook posts about it, so she called me. She goes, “Have you lost your mind?” LOL! She knows how frugal I am about eating fats and sugars, and here I am advertising for lard, of all things!

I’m gonna fry up a tater for dinner. I’m good and hungry now so my taste buds will be primed for it.

I opened up a can of reefer beans a couple of days ago. I scooped some in a bowl, added cheese and salsa and had it for dinner. I froze the rest!

Reefer beans, eh? Indica or sativa?

@Seek LOL I hurt myself.

Coloma must have sent Dutchess some special beans.

Maaaaagic beaaaaaans. Thanks man.

grasp that thick bean stalk