Cooking with fat

Since reading Nourishing Traditions, I've realised that using butter and lard/tallow in cooking is healthy, tasty and frugal.  For more information on good fats for cooking see this post.



I skim the lard/tallow off the top of my stock and keep it in a container in the fridge (my stock method here).  The easiest way to do this is to put the finished stock into a large jug or container in the fridge.  When it has cooled, the fat will have solidified on the top of the stock and is easy to scrape off.  I usually end up with a little stock mixed in, but that just adds flavour.  I don't bother to purify it, so I just try to use it up quickly (as the stock will go off before the fat will).  I find that its useful for frying and roasting just about anything.  When I have some cooking fat in the fridge I use it in place of my normal olive oil or butter.  I don't go out of my way to source animal fat for cooking, but when I do have it, I like to use it up.  I kept lots of fat from the steer we just butchered, so I will be rendering that soon (its waiting for me in the freezer).

I like using the fat because:

• it tastes good and is nutritious
• it means that I'm not wasting the fat from my stock
• I don't have to buy anything in packaging
• it reduces the amount of olive oil that I need to buy 

Do you cook with lard (from pork) or tallow (from beef)?  Or duck or chicken fat??