← Meat H41-05 · Module 5 of 7 · Pages: 19 · Worksheets: 5

Čvarci (pork scratchings) and lard

Rendering lard in a kettle and in the oven, large and small čvarci, white leaf lard for pastry, tallow for soap and candles, storage without rancidity and safety around hot fat

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Whole series: Meat, €39

Čvarci (pork scratchings) and lard

In short

  • From 10 kg of back fat and leaf fat you get roughly 6–7 kg of lard and 1–2 kg of čvarci.
  • Render slowly, stirring all the time, with a little water in the bottom; čvarci are done when golden, at roughly 120–130 °C (250–265 °F).
  • Not a drop of water must stay in the lard: water is what makes lard go off.
  • Lard is kept in clean, dry containers, dark and cold: roughly 6–12 months.
  • Never water on burning fat. A lid, a fire blanket or a fire extinguisher.
  • Lard and čvarci from a pig without a Trichinella result aren't eaten.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. Lard on the homestead
  2. Raw material: which fat for what
  3. Kit and place
  4. Rendering in a kettle, step by step
  5. Čvarci
  6. White leaf lard
  7. Storing lard
  8. Beef and mutton tallow
  9. Safety: hot fat and fire
  10. When something goes wrong
  11. Most common mistakes
  12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Lard and čvarci calendar
  • Lard and container calculator
  • Rendering log
  • Lard inventory
  • Labels for lard

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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