War on lard!

[fuzz-juzz]

Had to post this, I hope link will work.
It's more of a rant, after many futile tries to look for lard in local supermarkets now I know why it's not stocked anymore.
http://www.yorkfoods.com.au/in-the-supermarket
Ridiculous!
Why don't they ban soft drinks, chocolates, lollies, fast food restaurants, etc... it's all unhealthy but it's making profit! It's easier to squish small local company.
I use it in soaps, it's great in pastry and lovely on roast potatoes. I grew up when almost everything was cooked with lard.
It's not super healthy but as with everything, it won't hurt in moderation. How can it worse than overprocessed hydrogenated oils? :x
Vent over I guess...

 

[goji_fries]

* Rant appreciated *

Is there a w**mart where you live?

 

[JustBeachy]

You had me until you started talking about banning chocolate.

Seriously though, it does seem like more small businesses get pushed out of the market everyday. One of the sadder aspects of what we call progress.

 

[Dahila]

Still Farmers markets grow like mushroom after rain. At least they do in Canada. We have lard in grocery stores not only walmart. Lard has the highest smoke point and it is much better for frying than many of oils. It is awesome in cp soaps )
I think in Australia there is not walmart

 

[fuzz-juzz]

goji_fries, I'm in Australia, only "big two" as we call them or two biggest supermarkets used to stock it. I called my local independent supermarket and they might be able to order some in after long weekend otherwise I'll have to get some online, ridiculously overpriced and plus postage.:crazy:
JustBeachy, I don't care about chocolate, it can disappear from the face of the Earth, I wouldn't care at all haha.
I'm not that angry because it's not on the shelves anymore, as I'm still able to get it somehow, it's just sad how it was demonised.
It apparently disappeared in shops over a month ago. I didn't realise as I was going through some lard that I made myself. It was lovely but it's just to much work and it's hard to find nice fat for rendering.

 

[Jstar]

I don't care about chocolate, it can disappear from the face of the Earth, I wouldn't care at all haha.

:shock:

If it ever disappears off the face of the Earth, I'm goin' with it

 

[goji_fries]

goji_fries, I'm in Australia, only "big two" as we call them or two biggest supermarkets used to stock it. I called my local independent supermarket and they might be able to order some in after long weekend otherwise I'll have to get some online, ridiculously overpriced and plus postage.:crazy:
JustBeachy, I don't care about chocolate, it can disappear from the face of the Earth, I wouldn't care at all haha.
I'm not that angry because it's not on the shelves anymore, as I'm still able to get it somehow, it's just sad how it was demonised.
It apparently disappeared in shops over a month ago. I didn't realise as I was going through some lard that I made myself. It was lovely but it's just to much work and it's hard to find nice fat for rendering.

What about the farmers? Or check the butcher's shops, they usually give it away

 

[Relle]

Butchers in Australia don't usually keep lard anymore and when we did it was always sold, never given away.

FJ, I must have a look and see if their is another brand on the shelves in Coles and Woolies, we do have an IGA close by, so will look in there for curiosity sake.

The wholesaler on your link said to ask at your supermarket to get it back on the shelves, I think they did that with junket tablets - they were made in SA and they got those back on the shelves. The more people complain about these things, the better it is. Our local Woolies does not stock Mechanics brand lye anymore - they said because it doesn't sell. I was buying it all the time .

 

[fuzz-juzz]

I loved this brand of lard, it was just the best.
I did buy it few times from our local butcher but they stopped making it. Apparently, they don't have time and it's not selling well. Others either never made it or stopped making it as well. Farmers and farmers markets might have it, it's a big question mark and I just don't have time to run around unfortunately.
Relle, if you can see any other brand let me know. Here in Vic we only had Allowrie. There are other types of animal fat still on sale but I wonder when will they disappear. They might be mix of tallow and lard, but not 100% lard. Oh, and I did complain, Coles and Woollies both got a "nice" email from me. :shh:

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

Maybe ask them for the raw fat, if it is not worth their time to process it, maybe you can?

 

[TheOneWhoSoaps]

Fellow Aussie here, I've never seen lard for sale in either IGA or Coles locally, and I had been searching everywhere in both of them for Mechanix brand sodium hydroxide, no wonder I couldn't find it.
I buy the sodium hydroxide online in bulk now, from Escentials. Good price, but hard to purchase anything from them.

 

[OliveOil2]

My Walmart doesn't even carry lard, if I wanted to purchase from Walmart I would have to buy it online. I can get it, but not at my regular big name chain grocery either. I had assumed that Walmart would carry it, but when I asked the clerk she looked at me like I was crazy, then told me people don't use it anymore.

 

[DWinMadison]

Nobody loves a good conspiracy about government overreach more than me (imagine Gadsden flag and tri corner hat) thus the prepper lifestyle and soap making. But, in this case I think lard likely collapsed under the weight of capitalism, superior marketing and junk science.

For the first half of the last century lard was the standard cooking fat. Since it was rendered from pork and everybody cooked bacon every day all our grandmas and mammas had the afore mentioned can of bacon drippings. No self-respecting southern homemaker would actually BUY lard as that meant you didn't cook and pretty much sucked as a wife and mom.

Enter Proctor & Gamble and Crisco which was marketed as "fully digestable" which cleaverly implies that lard is LESS digestible. Good marketing is all about convincing me that what I have (usually cheap, free and abundant) is somehow not as good as what you have for a higher price. (e.g. Take whiskey, color it green and call it "tonic." )

To be fair, lard didn't have much to work with. Since it was a byproduct, butchers didn't care about selling it. And even the name sounds like what it is heavy, greasy and gloppy. "Crisco" sounded modern, cutting edge, and crisp. Here's an interesting bit from NPR on it... if you tell anyone I recommended ANYTHING from NPR I'll curse you with a soap-made voodoo doll.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/09/144918710/the-forgotten-fascinating-saga-of-crisco

 

[KatieShephard]

My Walmart doesn't even carry lard, if I wanted to purchase from Walmart I would have to buy it online. I can get it, but not at my regular big name chain grocery either. I had assumed that Walmart would carry it, but when I asked the clerk she looked at me like I was crazy, then told me people don't use it anymore.

My local Wal-Mart doesn't carry it either. I was shocked :Kitten Love: Ended up getting it at Wegmans.

 

[DWinMadison]

I bought a tub of it a Walmart yesterday. Hmmm. My local grocer is great about ordering products based on a customer's request. You might approach the general manager where you buy groceries.

 

[dosco]

My local Wal-Mart doesn't carry it either. I was shocked :Kitten Love: Ended up getting it at Wegmans.

Interesting. My Wegmans doesn't carry it but all of the Wal Marts (3 that are not too far) carry both the 1lb and 4lb tubs.

With that said all of the local grocers carry 1lb bricks/containers of lard ... the only reason I went to Wal Mart was because they sell Armour brand which is largely deodorized (I say largely because the 1lb tub didn't smell but the 4lb one smelled a bit "lardy"). The other brands sold locally smell a bit "lardy" or "bacon-ny"and one of my soaps carried that smell through to the final product.

To be fair, the soap that smelled had a mistake in the manufacturing process. It unintentionally had lard in the SF (my normal approach is to HP cook the lard until all of it is saponified and then add coconut oil).

Regards-
Dave

 

[IrishLass]

Wow- I can't imagine not having lard anywhere on the shelves.

All I can say is that I'm very thankful that it's everywhere in my neck of the woods.

I live amongst a large Hispanic population, and every grandma worth her salt never cooks without it.

It's in every Walmart, not to mention every regular grocery store around town year round. And during Christmas time, there's even more of it in the stores because of all the traditional tamale-making that goes on. Yum!

We recently started making tamales during Christmas-time ourselves (besides our usual pierogis). We all get together and have a big family assembly-line of tamale-making and pierogi-making. Lots of good, memory-making fun.

IrishLass

 

[Pepsi Girl]

Here's an interesting bit from NPR on it... if you tell anyone I recommended ANYTHING from NPR I'll curse you with a soap-made voodoo doll.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/01/09/144918710/the-forgotten-fascinating-saga-of-crisco

What I want to know is how you even know about NPR?
:crazy:

 

[DWinMadison]

Wow- I can't imagine not having lard anywhere on the shelves.

All I can say is that I'm very thankful that it's everywhere in my neck of the woods.

I live amongst a large Hispanic population, and every grandma worth her salt never cooks without it.

It's in every Walmart, not to mention every regular grocery store around town year round. And during Christmas time, there's even more of it in the stores because of all the traditional tamale-making that goes on. Yum!

We recently started making tamales during Christmas-time ourselves (besides our usual pierogis). We all get together and have a big family assembly-line of tamale-making and pierogi-making. Lots of good, memory-making fun.

IrishLass

In my neck of the woods, Christmas means gumbo! (Gulf Coast not Louisiana although I like LA gumbo...just not at Christmas.)

 

[Relle]

Fellow Aussie here, I've never seen lard for sale in either IGA or Coles locally, and I had been searching everywhere in both of them for Mechanix brand sodium hydroxide, no wonder I couldn't find it.
I buy the sodium hydroxide online in bulk now, from Escentials. Good price, but hard to purchase anything from them.

Coles keep Mechanix brand lye - that's where I get mine from. I bought bulk lye from Escentials, but it was sent via Aus post separate from the main order, so worked out the same price as me buying it from Coles. Adding the postage doesn't make it cheaper in bulk. I found them good to deal with and very efficient. Ordered one day and at the door the next (interstate).