Lard is an animal fat produced from the fatty or otherwise unusable parts of pig carcasses.
It is used for cooking, commonly used in British, German, Polish, Mexican, Norwegian and Japanese cuisine. Pure lard is especially useful for cooking since it produces very little smoke when heated. Toward the late 20th century lard began to be regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils such as olive and sunflower.
Lard was widely used as a butter substitute during World War II when butter was unavailable. As a waste product of pork production, lard has historically been cheaper than vegetable oils and thus featured prominently in poor people's diet until the industrial revolution made vegetable oils more affordable. Rendered lard has also been used to produce cakes of soap.
The highest grade of lard, known as 'leaf lard', is obtained from the leaf fat that surrounds the kidneys. The lowest grade is obtained from around the small intestines.
Each 100 grams of Lard contains the following:
