Rendering Lard

I thought the main character in the historical novel I’m writing might have to render lard for her cooking, so I’d give her my grandmother, Ida Martin’s recipe. This is exactly as she wrote it for a newspaper column in Wisconsin.

Rendering lard

 

For trying out leaf lard I first cut it up in small

pieces to go into a sausage grinder easily. I then run the lard through the grinder, which makes it very fine, just like sausage meat. I then put my iron kettle on the stove, filling it nearly to the top with my ground lard, without any water, and start cooking, watching and stirring some at first so they shall not stick to the kettle. To tell when it is done is to look at the scrap, when the scrap is brown your lard will keep; I then strain through a wire milk strainer into one-gallon butter crocks, but don’t strain in jars while too hot, as lard is hotter than boiling water, and might crack the jars. Now, done this way, it is not an all-day job rendering the lard, but you will get it all out of the way before dinner, and then can have time in the afternoon for making “liverwurst,” head cheese or some other of the many duties on a farm when butchering time comes around. I.L.M.

 

Fashions of 1904

I’ve been doing some researching for the historical novel I’m working on and was thinking about the clothing my main character was likely to have worn. I searched the internet and didn’t find exactly what I was looking for. Then it occurred to me to look at some of my own old family photos.

I believe this photo was a common style around 1900. Of course, these ladies, my great aunts, were all dressed up to have their picture taken. They wouldn't have worn duds like these to cook dinner. I would love to know the color of the dresses, but alas, this was long before color photography.

All I can say is that I’m sure glad we don’t dress like that any longer. Can you imagine what it would have felt like in the summer?