The best part about making your own lard is the fantastic food that follows, when you use the lard as your cooking fat.  The second best part is the look on people's faces when you tell them you're making a couple of quarts of lard.

 

I could talk about how lard doesn't have evil hydrogenated fats, like lots of packaged processed foods, margarine, and Crisco (which was made as a lard replacement).  I could quote sources describing how its ratios of saturated to unsaturated are surprisingly good.  I could appeal to tradition - how could millions of grandmas be wrong?  I could talk about how essential it is to the flavoring in Mexican food and lots of other cuisines.  I could find someone more capable with pastry than i am, and get them to make the flakiest pie crust ever.  I could get all hippie about the satisfaction of taking control over another element of the food that you eat - this isn't like using olive oil; this is like pressing the olives yourself.  And i could talk about how amazing your kitchen will smell, for hours.

 

But how could i pick one of those to focus on, when you get them all?  With no more effort than this:

 

6 pounds pork fat

a cup of water

 

Chop the fat into 1 inch chunks.  Grease the bottom of a big, deep pot, then add the water and some of the fat.  Bring to a boil.  Add the rest of the fat, reduce the heat to low, and partially cover.  Cook as low and slow as you can - we're talking several hours.  You want to keep it low enough that the chunks don't get crispy and golden; that seals in the remaining fat.  Cook it slowly, so the fat just melts out.  The water will boil off as you go (you'll be able to see the difference in how it bubbles, and it will pretty much stop steaming).  Let it go, checking occasionally, until no more fat is being rendered.  Remove, let cool, and strain into jars.  You can save the cracklings left and eat them directly, or crisp them further in the oven - i threw mine out, but i imagine they're pretty good.