Anyone use it?

I think lard makes crusts flakier. We render our own, but I was pleased to see they sold lard in Rural King yesterday.

i've used i to cook with before, never pastry, i'll stick with b_tt__

Grandma would never make a piecrust with anything but lard, mexican folks cook with lard almost exclusively.

BEAR-lard, the fat of a wild bear rendered into lard.

Richard! You expect responses to deal with the question?

like this one

I use bear lard for any recipe that calls for lard. Its quite amazing from berry and acorn fed bears. I'll add that it needs to be rendered at low temp and filtered when bottling. If done slowly and on low temp, it is very very good. Put it on boot leather, slings and dog leashes as well. Practically odorless.

That you.

30338, Has the bear fat thing right, we have been using it to cook with and on all our leather goods for as long as I can remember, when I was a boy 80 yrs ago my Grandmother and Mother and my Aunts used bear grease on their hair, in the summer when it got hot and dry , good stuff. Rio7

i think that was an indian thing too

i've rendered a bunch, ran out of things to do wth it, stopped asking the bear guy who was giving it to me, gave a lot away to my buckskinner buds

That hurt, huh?

Have a buddy that swears bear lard was considered cheating in pie bake offs in days of old.

His pies crusts definitely got better with the addition of it.

Not a baker so I have no experience at all with pie crust. Have heard of bear lard being the way to go. Another thing I hear and have seen numerous recipes for is not to use water in pie crusts. Wonder if anyone has tried this. Instead of water you use vodka. The premise is that gluten won't form if using vodka and in turn you get a flakier and more tender crust.