Is anyone else using lard now that butter is so expensive?

DD swears by lard, when making pastry and, like others, halves and halves.

I long ago gave up trying to make pastry, it never worked.

nadateturbe

I rarely make it but if I do I would never use lard. I use butter or margarine. I thought lard was animal fat?

Lard is animal fat but then so is butter.

Baking gene missed me completely...both Mom and Sister loved their baking sessions-jam tarts/lemon meringues/rhubarb & apple pies, bread etc and remember my only job was to cut the packs of butter and lard in half. whatever they made..I enjoyed! BTW missed the knitting, crocheting and dressmaking gene as well

I m with MissA I don’t make it ?

i learnt that the "half butter" was for flavour, and "half lard" was for texture. changed the lard for trex. now use all butter, but rarely. definitely better than anything with palm oil in. if you're using wholemeal flour you're going more for flavour than texture! occasionally use all veg oil, especially when there are vegans around.

No I grew up with chips cooked in lard and envied my friends who had chippy chips cooked in oil. I don’t like water crust pies for the same reason or margarine having been brought up on Stork vile stuff. Give me either olive or sunflower oil or (butter in limited amounts) of course. James Martin uses a ridiculous amount of butter and probably has very blocked arteries.

I am good at main courses but pretty hopeless at baking so can’t answer. Mum always fried chips in lard. Hope James Martin lives a long life as he sees nothing wrong with loads of fat. Personally I am back to butter, not artificial margarine.

At Secondary school in the 60s, I remember the short crust pastry recipe was for half butter, half lard. Later on, I remember using half butter, half Trex. Nowadays, it’s ready made - good enough for Mary Berry, good enough for me!

Lard makes the shortest shortcrust pastry. It's fine to use all lard.

I've got high cholesterol so no animal fats for me. Lard is great, but not for me. I rarely make pastry these days anyway.

Same here. But everything has gone up in price not just butter. I buy shop's own brand now and results are no different. I actually hate butter on sandwiches/toast etc so for that use jam or chocolate spread or honey. DH likes lurpak spreadable so buy it for him. DD's use shop's own make spreadable. My shopping habits have changed though. I go to Aldi for as much as possible and remainder that discount stores don't sell then get from Tesco or Sainsburys. I used to bake a lot but less now due to middle age spread! but DD1 bakes a lot and uses Aldi ingredients and are always delicious.

My grandmother made the best pastry I have ever tasted and always used a proportion of lard with her butter. She always said this was what made her pastry so light.

I bake to raise funds for a charity. Speaking to a professional at a workshop I asked how I could make butter cream red, for cupcakes. The best I could manage with red colouring was a salmon pink. She told me the reason was that I used butter. It’s yellow of course. Apparently many bakers, and I guess commercial bakers use lard, not butter. Lard is tasteless, odourless and colourless. So it takes on any colour. And dirt cheap. I was horrified. But it makes sense. I still use butter.

I leave the decision to whoever manufactures the ready to roll pastry that I buy. As a point of interest, the excellent ready rolled puff pastry sold by Lidl is vegan.

Half Stork block and half are here.

Same here.

Same as Sweetpeasue. Always, just as mum did.

Half Lard and half block stork or butter.

Trex would be fine. But animal fat, definitely not!

I always use half and half butter and lard for pastry it makes a much crisper flakier pastry. Never failed me yet.

Always use 50/50 lard and butter, or sometimes baking block instead of butter for pastry. It’s not always easy to find lard in the supermarkets I find.

For shortcrust pastry, I've always used half vegetable lard, as I think it gives the best results.

I am thinking of moving to cooking margarine for some cakes now, instead of butter.

I love pastry and always used half and half but got very few up with TH leaving it all on his plate so I don't bother now. Sometimes have a pie if we go out to eat while himself nibbles a goats cheese salad.

I think my mum used half lard, and her pastry was lovely.
She said it was because she had cold hands.

I don’t use lard but Trex, this is vegetable fat.