Nancy Young wrote:

> Yeah, I've looked at a lot of bread recipes, I don't think it's
> common here. The baker types will correct me if I'm wrong.
> I don't mean, does someone have this one recipe for bread
> that uses lard, I mean in general. Always seems to be butter.
>
> Regardless, I've given up any effort trying to explain to her what
> Crisco is, or what she might use instead. It's a solid vegetable fat.

As a child growing up, my father told us about rendering lard each fall
out in the yard over a big fire. They would pack it into crocks and such
for later use. He fondly remembered his mother adding the cracklings to
bread, and I'm sure if any fat was needed in her baking it was lard?

I didn't grow up eating lard, and wasn't very hip to it until Kay
Hartman wrote about rendering her own lard for her Mexican dinner one
year. We discussed lard in detail and learned all about the reasons lard
is *not* the evil fat some consider it. It is an ideal fat for pie
crusts and nothing beats its flavor for tamales.