I’ve been reading a lot about how it’s bad to use extra virgin olive oil when you’re cooking with high heat (e.g. roasting, grilling, etc.).  What a buzz kill. Thankfully, I have good, healthful lard in the fridge!

Tonight, I decided to roast some carrots and delicata squash coated in lard. Doesn’t that just sound totally decadent and unhealthy? A year ago, I would never touch lard with a ten-foot pole, but now I use it all the time. From now on, I’m going to try to use coconut oil, ghee, or lard for all my high-heat cooking.

Cooking with lard isn’t as convenient as pouring olive oil out of a bottle – you gotta melt the stuff, but then it easily seizes up again when it touches your cold veggies or meat.

So here’s what I did: I scooped up a few tablespoons of lard and nuked it in a glass bowl for 20 second intervals until it melted. Make sure you closely monitor it or your microwave will look like someone barfed lard all over it.

Once the lard melts, use a silicone brush to paint the fat onto your veggies.  It does solidify on contact (especially if your veggies are right out of the ice box) which is kind of annoying. But don’t overcompensate by slathering more on or you’ll end up with a huge oil slick at the bottom of your pan later.

Aren’t these carrots purty?

 

I peeled and cut them before coating them with lard and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Post-roasting (400 F for 40 minutes):

Here’s the delicata squash before I popped it in my toaster oven (400 F for 20-30 minutes). They almost look waxed!

Post-roasting:

I have tons of extra virgin olive oil stock-piled in my pantry from my pre-Paleo days. Now that I’ve sworn off cooking at high temperatures with the stuff, I guess I’m gonna be drizzling it on a lot of my dishes after I’ve plated them! (Update: I still cook with extra virgin olive oil because I read this article that calmed my fears.)

About Michelle Tam

Hello! My name is Michelle Tam, and I love to eat. I think about food all the time. It borders on obsession. I’ve always loved the sights and smells of the kitchen. My mother was (and is) an excellent cook, and as a kid, I was her little shadow as she prepared supper each night. From her, I gained a deep, abiding love for magically transforming pantry items into mouth-watering family meals.

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1 Comment

  1. Lard is fantastic stuff will cook the best meat you’ve ever tasted if you know how to work with the stuff so you place your veg that takes the longest to back in fist from melting point then after how ever long I usually go 20 minutes at 200 and turn it down to 160 and turn my veg be very careful it will burn you if it splashes on you.! In this 20 I prepare my meet in an oven bag place it in.! Turn you veg to prevent sticking and to brown evenly it the blood and juices from the meat that’s going to brown these veggies and future veggies.
    Depending on your meat size you want to cook it in the lard for half the cooking time.! Same for your veg cook the veg. Tip off the lard into a ceramic bowl put back in to finish cooking tipping off any extra lard cooking back out of your meat an veg.! You want to dry your veggies back out in this process so high heat is good after you remove your meat bake those veggies for as long as they take to crunch.! you’ll never taste anything else like it crunchiest browned carrot that melts in your mouth even if you burn it almost black it’s the best thing ever.! Pumpkin like no other. Secret is when that lard cools down place in fridge what you find in the bottom of that next time you go to use it is pure browning this is what browns your veg an it’s like a jelly.! Add a teaspoon to your gravy for flavour don’t add the lard just the brown jelly.!
    Second time roasting with the lard your veg will have this brown to roast in, second roast in the same lard will be the best roast you e ever done.!
    Use an old pan or a bbq tray inside your roasting dish as the lard is pure fat very hard to remove.!
    Never tried it the above way maybe painting on a tablespoon of brown and melted lard may get the same effect.!