Lard alternative?

[Greg Who Cooks]

Rendered beef (beef tallow) is the closest thing to lard. Just from the properties of oils and fats I'd suggest palm oil as an alternative, although I have not personally tried it. All three are largely composed of oleic and palmitic acids, and to some degree stearic acid (palm oil less so).

[Bolas De Fraile]

Originally Posted by Steve Kroll

You mean Kate and Sidney, right?

Had it once in London. I liked it. But kidney is more difficult to find than suet in these parts.

Yes sweeny them as well

[Bolas De Fraile]

Originally Posted by Gourmet Greg

Rendered beef (beef tallow) is the closest thing to lard. Just from the properties of oils and fats I'd suggest palm oil as an alternative, although I have not personally tried it. All three are largely composed of oleic and palmitic acids, and to some degree stearic acid (palm oil less so).

coconut shortening is good as well.

[Addie]

Originally Posted by Skittle68

Wow, I never knew suet had any use other than bird food lol

I use beef suet when making Yorkshire pudding with a beef roast. My butcher gives me a nice long strip for free.

[Addie]

Originally Posted by CWS4322

My grandma's Christmas pudding recipe used suet. My dad "dumpster dives" behind the locker plant for suet for the birds. For cooking, he buys it at the grocery store.

Hmmm! My butcher gives it to me for free. He cuts it off from the animal and tosses it in the bucket that he resells back to some other plant that uses meat trimmings, bones and fat. He gets daily delivery of sides of animals. So he does his own butchering. I have seen it in some supermarkets packaged and sold by the pound. Usually $.99 a pound.
Doesn't homemade mincemeat call for suet?

[taxlady]

Originally Posted by Gourmet Greg

Rendered beef (beef tallow) is the closest thing to lard. Just from the properties of oils and fats I'd suggest palm oil as an alternative, although I have not personally tried it. All three are largely composed of oleic and palmitic acids, and to some degree stearic acid (palm oil less so).

I have used palm oil for pastry and it works very well. Just remember to measure by volume. It's noticeably less dense than lard. One pound of palm oil will give you a fair bit more than 2 cups.

[Greg Who Cooks]

Originally Posted by Gourmet Greg

Rendered beef (beef tallow) is the closest thing to lard. Just from the properties of oils and fats I'd suggest palm oil as an alternative, although I have not personally tried it. All three are largely composed of oleic and palmitic acids, and to some degree stearic acid (palm oil less so).

Originally Posted by Bolas De Fraile

coconut shortening is good as well.

Coconut may work well but it's distinctly different from lard, tallow or palm oil. Coconut oil is primarily composed of lauric and myristic fatty acids, both lower molecular weight (shorter carbon chains) than the others mentioned above. I'm often interested in the chemistry side of cooking although not always sure what the chemical/molecular differences mean.

I'm pretty sure palm oil is closer to lard/tallow than coconut oil is, if for no other reason than the similarity of the fatty acids.

Originally Posted by taxlady

I have used palm oil for pastry and it works very well. Just remember to measure by volume. It's noticeably less dense than lard. One pound of palm oil will give you a fair bit more than 2 cups.

Yeah, definitely by volume.

[Jacob Vicente]

Thank you all for you comments and help, will try and find what you suggest . Not easy here lol