Fried Lard

It's the hormone pills.  They're making me weird. All sorts of weird.  I'm into mood swings. I crave certain food.  Then, there's the meat dishes. I've always liked meat dishes. I don't remember a time when I didn't like it.  Yet recently, grilled succulent mouth-watering meat cuts sent the chill down my spine. I can't see where that came from.

Lard is the exception. I've been craving for Hokkien Mee with extra fried lard. I liked the way it crunches in my mouth, its rich lardy aroma. Most of all, it brought back such memories.

Forty years ago, lard didn't use to be unhealthy. Nobody spoke of cholesterol and the dastardly LDL.  Everything tasted great. The neighbours at the back of the shophouse were butchers so they had plenty of pork fat. These were thrown into a huge wok to extract the oil. Once the oil is fully extracted, the residue is lifted off and used as food garnishes.  Ma used to buy huge packets of these, hot from the wok. A generous sprinkle of salt over the fried lard and its good to go.  It is crunchy and gratifying. 

This reminds me of Silas Marner.

Silas Marner, by George Eliot was a book I read in my early teens.  It told the unforgettable story of a linen weaver who settled down in a small village called Raveloe. The farmer's wife, in exchanged for the weaved linen, gave Silas lard cakes and cuts of pork. (I had never heard of lard cakes so I cannot describe to you its heavenly taste. Someday, I'll do something about that.)

Now, Silas lived alone in a stone cottage with a fireplace in his parlour. He hung his cuts of pork over the fireplace with a tray beneath to collect the dripping fats. As he weaved at his loom, he is bathed in the aroma of the pork grilling slowly by his fireplace. I thought that was dreamy.  Was, get it?  Now that picture nauseates me. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought I'm pregnant with the kind of nauseating thoughts and food cravings that's been assaulting me.

Here's a little something I read about concerning lard.

Lard began to fall out of favour in the early years of the 20th century when Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle exposed conditions in the meatpacking industry. The book included anecdotes of workers who fell into vats of molten pork fat and were sometimes overlooked for days until "all but the bones of them" went out to the world in packages of lard. Sinclair's book led to the decline of lard in everyday cooking.

This reminds me of another story my cousin told me. At a local factory producing burger patties, a finger was inadvertently cut off. This finger went through the assembly and ended up minced into one of the patties. They found traces of the finger nail.  This is why I made my own hamburger patties. 

In 1911, the company Proctor & Gamble were doing pretty well growing & harvesting cotton.  The cotton seed, a bothersome by-product of cotton became so numerous, that Proctor & Gamble decided to see if there was anything they could make from the cotton seed to make a profit. 

They found after intense processing — which included heating & pressing — they were able to extract oil. An easily rancid and unstable fat, the process of hydrogenation was added to make the cotton seed oil last very long. When the cotton seed oil cooled, it looked exactly like lard.  They called it Crisco. 

Crisco, like margarine, is a vegetable fat turned into a solid form at room temperature by the process of hydrogenation. This method also creates trans-fatty acids, which we now know increase total cholesterol, raise LDL ("bad") cholesterol and lower HDL ("good") cholesterol. These unnatural compounds may also have adverse effects on cell membranes and the immune system, and may promote inflammation, cancer and accelerated ageing. 

Proctor & Gamble effectively marketed Crisco as a cheaper & “healthier” fat.  Lard was touted as unhealthy or smelly.  They even gave away free cookbooks with every purchase of Crisco.  The cookbooks were full of common recipes, but instead of lard or butter, Crisco was listed as the ingredient.  You probably eat cotton seed oil every single day because it is in almost EVERY PACKAGED or PROCESSED food in your store. Chips, cereals, cookies, crackers, breads, salad dressings, mayonnaise, pasta sauces, fast food, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, make-up, lipstick,  EVERYTHING. Why? Because it’s CHEAP!

Source: Uncle Google 

And to think I used to add Crisco into my pau dough. What this means is that fried lard isn't as deadly as it had been made to look. Then again, you never know who to listen to. Food experts and nutritionists are a dime a dozen these days. They weave conflicting tales to confuse the daylights out of us. It's what they do.

UPDATE

• Radiotherapy commences next week.
• Finger tips and toes still numb.
• Three parallel lines cut across the middle of my finger nails. Can't explain how these came along. The dark parts of the finger nails have been pushed to the outer peripheral. Also, the dark blotches on my toes are gone.
• Nothing much to report on what's happening up there.  It is still white with patches of grey. And - it isn't curly! ~~~ Yet?