I would like to say first off that the last time I had blood work done the nurse told me my cholesterol was 'ideal'
I cook a great deal with animal fats. Other than that I use olive oil and coconut oil only. If you can't get oil from it by squeezing it I won't cook with it. Corn oil, canola oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, shortening, etc are chemically synthesized and some studies suggest that these synthesized oils are worse for you than the animal fats they were intended to replace. Actually the high grain, low fat diet that we have been lead to believe is a healthy lifestyle is based in what is called 'The Lypid Hypothisis' and is far from proven- freaky huh?
Anyway, soapbox is away now. I cook with animal fats and since bacon is pricey I needed to look for a better source of cooking fat. The last time we got a cow I requested they package and freeze the fat off of her. This got me strange looks so I decided not to bother telling then I intended to eat it.
Now that I had large bags of frozen chunks of cow lard I needed to render it down. First I tried cooking it down in a cast iron dutch oven in a 250 degree oven and that worked pretty well. My next try was much much easier. I just plopped (yes, plopped) the fat into my slow cooker and left it on low for a few days. When there was nothing but liquid fat and little dark chunks left I strained it into canning jars. I put one in the fridge then labeled and dated the rest and put them in the freezer. I have read that rendered fat is shelf stable but I don't think i need to risk that when I have other option like refrigeration.
At first I was intimidated by the whole thing but the slow cooker made it very simple.
