Lard made with onion skins and various spices is very similar to smoked lard. The advantage of such a natural product is that you can cook it very quickly and at home.
Pork lard is a healthy product, if consumed in small quantities, and very tasty. Lard is very tasty in any form. It is salted, pickled, used as fat during cooking and frying, smoked and boiled. And if you add a little onion peel to it, then it will acquire a beautiful rich ruddy color and an unusual taste.
Preparatory work
To prepare smoked-boiled lard, you will need 1-1.5 kg of unsalted lard, preferably with a beautiful meat layer, two or three handfuls of onion husks, sugar - 100-150 g, salt - 2 tbsp. spoons, allspice - 3-5 peas, bay leaf - 3-4 pieces, as well as garlic, a mixture of peppers, paprika and dry adjika. In addition, you will need a medium-sized saucepan. For cooking lard, it is advisable to take dark-colored dishes, otherwise you will very much paint it with husks.
Cook lard
Cut the bacon into large pieces so that they fit in the pan. Now prepare the brine. For it, add two tablespoons of salt, 100-150 g of sugar, bay leaves, peppercorns and thoroughly washed onion skins to a liter of water. Put the brine on fire and bring it to a boil. At this time, rinse the bacon under running water.
When the water boils, dip the bacon in it and cook it for 20-25 minutes after the water boils. Then remove the pan from the heat. You do not need to pull out the fat. It should be properly salted and saturated with brine. Usually fat is left for 10-12 hours. After this time, the brisket must be removed from the pan and allowed to drain. You can use a colander or sieve for this. Leave the prepared bacon for thirty minutes - "rest".
And at this time yourself prepare the "filling", or rather the rub. For her, finely chop or pass 2-3 cloves of garlic through a press and mix it with a pinch of the pepper mixture. If you wish, you can add paprika or dry adjika to them. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and rub the prepared bacon with the resulting mixture. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator, or better, in the freezer.
Little tricks
If you want to give your lard not only the look, but also the flavor of smoked, add one tablespoon of liquid smoke to the brine.
You can also stuff the chilled boiled bacon with spices and garlic. To do this, make small incisions in a piece of bacon and place cloves of garlic and pepper in them.
To prepare lard, it is better to take the husk from red onions or mix it in half with golden onion husks. With their help, you will give the brisket a more ruddy look.
When you rub the lard with spices, add a little coarse sea salt to the mixture. It will give the finished dish a more subtle taste and make it tender and aromatic.
You can also use salted lard in this recipe. In this case, the amount of salt in the brine must be reduced.
In the same way, you can cook chicken, pork, beef. But in this case, the meat needs to be cooked much longer - from 40 to 60 minutes. Naturally, the salting time in the marinade will also need to be increased.
