How to Render Lard in a Slow Cooker

Turning pork fat into lard is easier than you may think. You can use these directions to render lard in a slow cooker for creamy white lard that is great for cooking, baking, or making skincare products. The process is as simple as heating and straining the fat to remove any impurities.

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Lard is a versatile product made from rendering pig fat. You can think of rendering lard as a refining process that allows for the separation of pure fat from cracklings (bits of meat, skin, and fat that remain after rendering has been completed).

Lard can be used in place of oil for cooking, baking, and deep-frying and to make skincare products like soap, lotion, and lip balm.

You can buy lard, or if you have access to pork fat, it isn’t difficult to render your own. The purest (and least stinky) lard is rendered from leaf fat which is found around the animal’s kidneys, but lard can be rendered from back or belly fat as well. We butcher our pigs at home, so during processing we vacuum seal packages of fat to be rendered along with the meat.

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Materials Needed to Render Lard in a Slow Cooker

Render lard in a slow cooker from ground pork fat

Ideally, your pork fat should be ground before rendering (as seen above) because it produces much less waste. If you don’t have a grinder, you can cut the pork fat into small pieces with a sharp knife. It is easiest to cut when it is partially thawed. You will want to use a slow cooker on the lowest setting, some run too hot even on low so make sure you keep an eye on yours. The rubber spatula is used for stirring the pork fat periodically as it renders and for scraping any bits that stick to the sides of the slow cooker.

Once your pork fat has rendered, you will pour it through a mesh strainer lined with cheese cloth into a large bowl. Then you can pour it into a measuring cup with a spout and into the container that you will store it in without making a mess. What is left in the strainer will be the cracklings. They can be fried up and eaten or disposed of.

I store my cooled lard in Mason jars in the refrigerator, where it keeps for a year. If you leave it in your pantry at room temperature, it keeps for 4-6 months. If the lard smells bad (like rotten meat) it has gone rancid and should be thrown out.

Directions for Rendering Lard in a Slow Cooker

Plan for spending 4-6 hours on this endeavor
Put your ground pork fat into your slow cooker. Alternately, cut your pork fat into small pieces (the smaller the better) with a kitchen knife and put them into the slow cooker
Set the slow cooker to low
Every 20-30 minutes, stir the pork fat with a rubber spatula. Scrape the sides of the slow cooker to loosen anything sticking
Continue cooking until all fat has rendered. You will know it is fully rendered when there are dry cracklings floating on top of the liquid lard
Line a mesh strainer with cheese cloth and set in on top of a large bowl
Carefully (it will be very hot!) pour the rendered fat through the lined strainer into the bowl
Collect the cracklings from the top of the cheese cloth if you want to use them
Pour the hot lard into a measuring cup and then into a Mason jar or other storage container
Allow the lard to cool, you will see it turn from a yellow liquid to a white solid
Once it has cooled, put a lid on the lard so that it is airtight and store in the refrigerator or pantry
Use your lard for cooking, baking, frying, or skin care!