Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to relax about animal fats.
Level of Commitment: Baby Steps (“Making Strides” emotionally for some of you)
Believe me, I know this is a tough one. I used to spend a LOT of time cutting off every single little tiny bit of fat from every cut of meat I brought home from the grocery store. I tried to buy “lean” whenever the budget would allow it. I skimmed every drop of fat from the top of my homemade chicken broth.
I’m still not going to eat grizzle or leave fat on my chicken for stir fry, because I think the texture is nasty. But I’ve purchased lard, I leave the fat in my chicken broth (because that’s where the immunities are!), and I used the fat from my beef stock to fry french fries. (Oh. My. Can you say “Heaven?”) Although I’m eating french fries cooked in peanut oil at a bar as I type (see this post for why!), I’m coming around to the value of animal fats. Our ancestors ate them, even prized them, and there are some surprising components in them as well. You can find out more in the Food for Thought, which won’t be coming until tonight – surprisingly, linked to why I’m in a bar right now. 
UPDATE: Here’s some research on the Health Benefits of Lard and Tallow
This is sort of a loosey-goosey mission that you can interpret as you like. You might want to run out and buy some lard for your tortillas or pie crusts after reading tonight’s Food for Thought to help you find a “good” source. You might order some tallow. I might order some tallow, actually! Want to split a big ol’ bucket of fat with me, local readers? 
If you’re the type of person who really needs a specific mission, here it is: Leave your fat in your chicken stock next time. If you’re not making homemade chicken stock yet, you better believe you need to for this flu season!
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If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.
Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money. If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.
I’d love to know possible places to find lard. My local Shop Rite has lard, but one of the ingredients was homogenized which I thought was bad. Whole Foods didn’t carry it at all. I haven’t checked the health food store, though I think they would be more expensive than Shop Rite. Maybe I need to hit a farmers market and talk to a meat vendor?
.-= Barb@My Daily Round´s last blog ..Local Folks: Church of the Redeemer Thrift Shop =-.
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Katie Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Barb,
I will hit on this in tonight’s post!
Katie
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Not too long ago I started using lard, because I started making homemade tamales (bought the masa sort of on a whim). Gosh, those things are great. Next I plan to start trying it in homemade pie crust, as it’s supposed to be the most delicious and traditional way to make them, as I understand it.
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Love it! I love the whole post (you are funny, Katie!) but Greg and I have been full-fat, animal fat people for about 8 years now, after reading an article in the New Yorker about trans fats, before everyone knew what those were! I’ll keep reading to learn more …
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I make beef broth since I got a 1/4 of a grass-fed cow earlier this year. I would (and have) made chicken broth but I can’t find pastured chickens anymore and I won’t buy organic chickens since they’re still fed soy.
I always, always leave the fat in my broths. I just got 20 lbs of beef fat and will make beef tallow this week. Yummy. I got a whole piggy ealier this year and make my own lard. That’s really good, too!
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My favorite pie crusts are 50/50 butter and lard. In my opinion, the perfect combination for pastry!
I have a little quart-size container of lard in my fridge right now (locally, well, Nebraska made and open-kettle. The only kind I can find that isn’t hydrogenized!) just for this reason – pie season in a few weeks!
About that tallow . . . I think I’m going to be in MI around the 8th of December or so. With a vehicle and an ice chest. . . are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Best,
Sarah
PS – When I get a chance, I’ll be shooting you an e-mail. If I don’t, remind me!
.-= Sarah´s last blog ..For the Love of the Slow Cooker Week – Yogurt =-.
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Why then does Sally Fallon say to skim the fat off the broth??
I just started leaving it on though, b/c I read leaving a layer of fat at the top helps preserve it better, but I’ve still been scooping it off before adding it to a recipe…
I’ve been saving the fat from when I cook ground beef. Isn’t that tallow?
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Katie Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Sarah W.,
I’m sure it’s because chicken fat is rather high in polyunsaturates, the kind of fat Americans have way too much of in our diets. Honestly. You just can’t win – I think I’ll start skimming half of it off – then I’m half immunized and don’t have as much poly fat in me, right?
Yes, liquid beef fat is tallow. If it’s from a good source, it’s good to save it!
Katie
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Vera Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
So to get tallow, do you have to boil the beef, cool and then skim the fat (tallow) off the top?
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Katie Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Vera,
Katie
I just grabbed the fat from the top of my beef stock as one option for tallow, although that’s not high quality stuff. Technically to make tallow, you buy beef fat from a certain part of the cow (I forget right now) and boil it with a bit of water, cooking long and slow until it’s totally liquid. There are instructions on Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Cheeseslave and Nourished Kitchen that I know of.
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Well, that raises a question that’s been on my mind…. we all know there’s lots of buzz about Omega 3s – but this is b/c we need to balance out the high amount of Omega 6 found in the “Standard American Diet.” Well, I’m not going to claim a 100% traditional diet, by any means, but for those of us trying to eat traditional foods most of the time, should our diet already have a better balance? Or is there just SO much soy and what not in the food chain that we can’t escape it? (FWIW, I am trying to consume pastured meats most of the time now… but I still buy some prepared meats…)
Well at any rate, I do enjoy me some crispy chicken skin when my roasted chickens come out of the oven! And I consider it a “health” food while I’m eating it!!
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I recently made tamales with a girlfriend, she used lard and I cringed! But you are changing my mind. Think I will go buy some of my own. You know when you smash your finger and develop a blood blister under your nail… My grandmother always made pie crust with Lard and wrapped the finger, it really works and heals the finger quickly.
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Do you have A recipe for Beef stock somewhere on your site? I just got a i/4 grass fed cow and the butcher gave me all the bones and livers, need to find something to do with them.
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Katie Reply:
December 31st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
A, I’ve used Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2008/08/homemade-organic-french-onion-soup.html (it’s at least linked to from there). Much like chix stock but you roast the bones 1st.
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