I’ve been calling around various grocery stores this week, trying to get a hold of pork fat trimmings so that I can make my own lard for some recipes. One of the stores I called today said that they couldn’t give me the trimmings because they don’t have a code for it. I forget exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, “so you’re just going to throw it away instead?” “Yes.”
I understand that it does require some effort to separate from the rest of the waste, so I don’t mind paying a bit, but its upsetting that they have no way to pass scraps along to someone who will use them instead of just tossing them in the waste.
Edit for anyone invested: I called around to a few other stores after making this post. One or two mentioned that they don’t necessarily throw all of those bits away, but often use them for other products, such as sausages. I also found a store that will be putting aside their trimmings for me tomorrow, and they should have more than I need. It’s almost an hour away on the bus, but right next to another store that should have any other hard to find ingredients that I’ll need for the tamales.
Also interesting was that different locations of the same chains had different answers for me regarding even their ability to provide the scraps to me, so the suggestions that a manager might be able to make it happen are probably very accurate.
I always figured this was for health and safety reasons
It almost certainly is.
We make food “from scratch” on a regular basis.
We’ve found a few different sources for fats. I’ll focus on the pork-fat ones.
The most common source is to just collect fat any time we make pork things. The advantage is that it’s cheap and easy; just let it cool and add it to a jar in the fridge. The disadvantage is that it will have a lot of other flavors (especially salt).
Sometimes we just by processed lard. That’s basically the opposite end of the spectrum. It’s very pure and has no flavor besides the fat itself.
Often we’ll wet render our own fat. Traditionally that would be the trimmings off of other cuts. Unless you’re butchering a pig (or have bought into a fractional pig through something like a CSA) those bits usually aren’t available. Typically we’ll just buy cuts that are very high in fat. For pork, that would be pork belly. We’ll just buy an uncut slab and wet-render it. Trim any meat you want to cook with (belly is the part that bacon is made of) throw the rest in a pot of water an simmer it for a few hours. The fat layer that collects on top is almost pure lard.
We’ve also found that duck fat is a great substitute for lard. It has a similar smoke point to lard (slightly higher). It tastes different from lard but it’s also good enough that the flavor itself will improve meals. Duck breasts are about 50% fat if you buy them with skins. You can also buy duck fat on its own.
What you are told on the phone and what will actually happen in the store are two completely different things.
If it’s so much effort to try and get fat trimmings from butchers, why not just buy a block of lard from the supermarket?
My main reasoning is that I just wanted to try making it from scratch at least once, just for the experience. A secondary reason is that I guess I’m technically looking for “manteca de puerco”, which has more pork flavor than the shelf stable lard available at the closest grocery stores, so I have to make a special trip to get the right stuff anyway, and I’m just exploring my options as to how to get a hold of the necessary ingredients.
Where I grew up, there’s multiple huge Mexican grocery stores, so it’s easy to get exactly what I need in one stop, but where I live now, I have to go to multiple stores to get everything, and still have to make do with some minor substitutions (eg. frozen banana leaves instead of fresh).
Fair enough, I agree the situation is mildly infuriating, whatever the reason you wanted it. A lot of restaurant/pub chains over here will throw out extra food if they prepped too much, rather than letting staff take it, probably because they don’t want people creating waste on purpose but also don’t want to spend the minimal effort required to stop people abusing the system if they allowed people to take excess food home. The distrust of low paid workers leads to most stores being unable to deal with special requests unless you are speaking to the manager and I don’t know where I’m going with this…
Is it really from scratch if you don’t raise the piglet and butcher it yourself?
Why you are not charging a single penny?
Find a local, independently owned meat market. That is where we get beef tallow for making deer burger. They will sell anything they have that someone will pay for.
One of the other markets around here said they can offer lots of beef tallow, and suggested I try some of the Asian markets, but the challenge is that most of those are a hassle to get to via public transit. I did find at least one other that says they can provide pork fat on Saturday, and I still have a few other places to call too. Worst case, I make a special trip to the Mexican market to buy rendered lard. Just wanted to try rendering it myself this time, and found it super frustrating that no code = trash.
Here is the anti-story to the above:
Back when I was in school I needed a handful of 35mm film canisters for some damn fool project or another. I don’t remember exactly what I was planning to use them for. So I went to the local camera store and asked the clerk there if I could just buy like 20 or 30 empty film canisters figuring they’d have a fair few lying around. This was, of course, in the days when 35mm film was still the predominant photography standard, and consumer grade digital cameras that could even achieve one real world megapixel were very new, very exciting, and very expensive.
Apparently I was right, because they guy said, “Good god, please take some” and gave me an entire shopping bag full of the damn things. For free. Apparently just to be rid of them.
I was using film canisters to store everything and anything for years after that.
Same thing applies to cardboard boxes at the liquor store. Most retailers have plenty of strong boxes and the clerks hate having to break them down for the trashman.
That’s awesome!
I did get a small bit of pork lard from another store today, but they basically told me it was a one time thing. I was definitely hoping it would be free since it’s otherwise garbage, but I also wasn’t surprised that they charged a small fee for it. But then again, it’s a national chain, not some small, local shop. The “no code = trash” store is also a national chain, so I’m a little surprised by the differences.
Another factor to add is that major retailers use anything they throw away as a tax write-off “loss” and they are therefore extremely cagey about giving any of it away for any reason, even to employees, I guess because if this is found out it could have some kind of implications, I dunno.
My nephew works for Target and apparently they do this. He tells me a manager will stand there and watch them crushing perfectly good floor model TV’s and other electronics in the trash compactor so he can sign off that they did it and none of those items were used for any beneficial purpose whatsoever, because weaseling out of $0.02 in taxes is apparently more worthwhile to corporate than giving a dedicated employee a new but slightly scuffed TV they were going to throw away anyway.
It’s positively infuriating. I’m sure the perishable goods/food sector is even worse.
Not sure if they still exist, but look for a butcher or maybe a deli. Chain stores have no humanity left.
I did eventually find a store that said they’d have some for me tomorrow, and said they’d put aside about 10lb! I think I only need about 5lb, but depending on what they’re charging, I might just take it all.
Unfortunately most local managers don’t actually have the ability to negotiate. Their job is to administer the machine, and avoid getting sued.
It sucks because it often means they can’t make decisions even if they would make the store more money.
I worked at a big box store for a while and my department was turning away customers simply because we couldn’t serve them. Hiring more help would have brought in revenue far beyond their wages, but my stores hands were tied by centralized corporate policy that dictated how many people they could hire.
I had like $500k in the sales pipeline. I had an excellent conversion rate on the customers I actually had time to work with. But I was forced to spend my time stocking shelves and cleaning while my customers called in frustrated why I wasn’t helping them.
People say it’s all about profit but that’s not actually true. It’s about maximizing the ability of the central corporate office to model and predict the money flows. I wish it were all about profit.
I’ve worked for startups and other small locally-owned businesses and it’s so great to see the flexibility they have. Working for a huge corporation sucked because it was like twelve layers of command structure to get to someone who could make a decision.
They made this bullshit illegal in New York. All food waste has to be donated to the city. They even come pick it up. You can be fined extremely heavily for throwing edible food away. This applies for restaurants, grocery stores, etc.
As another commenter mentioned, it may not be truly sent to the landfill, but sent to some sort of scrap processing facility.
https://lemmy.zip/comment/15409560
After calling around more, at least one other store told me that they use the fat trimmings for other things, such as sausages.
If you have one, a local butcher might be a better solution.
In the southeastern US, we have plenty of fatback in stores, among other odds and ends. The employees laughed when I had to ask what it was.
Not an answer for you right now, but I just make lard whenever we get a big hunk of pork, I get the one with a bone and skin cut the skin & fat off and render it and it’s quite a project but makes enough for my purposes though the year, I don’t use it often. I wouldn’t expect a shop to do that for me for any amount I’d be willing to pay!
I’m making tamales, and while I will be buying a big hunk of pork for them, it won’t have enough fat to make enough lard, plus I also wanted to make the lard ahead of time, since it doesn’t need to be super duper fresh. Looking at my notes from last year, I used about 7lb pork shoulder and 2lb lard. The thing is, I asked around about it last year and had multiple butchers say it would be no problem, so I was caught off guard when the staff at those same stotes all said no now. Anyway, I did finally find a butcher that will be saving the fat trimmings for me tomorrow.
My kids have asked for tamales every year since I made them for Christmas about ten years ago, but I am not yet rested up from that batch. Even though we had a tamalada and they helped wrap them, the days ahead making tamale dough (two versions because we have vegans) and fillings (several versions because, again, vegans) it was exhausting. I think it will be either gumbo or oxtail soup this year, and a big pot of beans.
tamalada
I’ve never heard that word before! Looking it up, I see that my family has essentially been having an annual tamalada for probably close to 10 years now. Grandma used to make them all on her own, and since she doesn’t have anything written down, it’s been a joint effort to make sure the recipe lives on. The family recipe is central American, so they’re a bit different than Mexican tamales, but I do enjoy both!
I also did a side project last year to make vegan masa for the few vegan/kosher guests we have, and then I usually do a second traditional batch when I’m back home so I can practice, make notes, and have some to share with my local friends. It’s definitely a lot of work, usually a 2-3 day project, but it does get easier with practice, and 1-3 assistants.
I found corn broth really improves the vegan dough. You can use cobs to make it, and save the corn for something else. Corn cobs & an onion.
Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind! I’ve used store bought vegetable broth and/or olive brine in the past.
If I buy one of those roasted whole chickens from the store I strip a bunch of meat off then I boil the skeleton in a crock pot. Makes great bone broth.
Me too! So flavorful. I don’t do bone broth exactly, can’t get them that clean. But there are some in my freezer right now waiting.
