Chinese Lard Rice
three ingredients away from nostalgia
Whenever I use lard in the kitchen, I get a gentle feeling of nostalgia. The use of lard in Chinese cooking is an unspoken secret that I have grown to forget: commonly used in so many traditional dishes, yet only giant bottles of plant oils sit next to my stove; sunflower oil for home food, olive oil for everything from salads to pasta. Then there is butter in the fridge for baking and scrambled eggs.
On one hand, this may be because I have lived abroad for so long; afterall, butter and olive oil occupy at least 80% of shelf space in the UK. I still remember the struggle I had when went to buy lard here for the first time. Semi-blinded by at least 20 varieties of butter, it was challenging to find the modest light blue label of ‘Just Lard’ hidden in the corner of a giant fridge.
Even back in China, there has been a small decline in its use, partly due to worries that it is extremely unhealthy. When I was little, whenever my grandparents made lard, I would beg them for lard stir-fried vegetables instead of the usual veggies. They would always make two versions, one for me with lard, and one without for themselves. As I grew older, the worry of high cholestrol levels grew too, and this small luxury gradually disappeared from our dinner table.
After living for over 10 years in the UK, lard is now a rare ingredient in my daily cooking. Other than baking, sunflower oil is a decent substitute most of the time, but seeing Thom Eagle’s tonnarelli cacio, grasso e pepe with rendered cull yaw fat the other day made me crave lard rice.
In the old days, lard rice 猪油拌饭 was a symbol of poverty, eaten by families that that could rarely afford meat. No-waste cooking was a natural concept — offcuts of pork which contained large amounts of fat are saved and rendered into homemade lard, ready to be added to meals in the place of meat.
With rapid economic growth in China in recent years, lard rice is not eaten as much as the old days. The occasional revival of the dish is more a symbol of nostalgia.
When it’s dinner time, freshly cooked rice will be topped with a small spoonful of white lard and a drizzle of soy sauce. The hot bed of rice, still steaming, would melt the lard. Through folding and mixing with chopsticks, every grain of rice becomes evenly coated with lard and soy sauce, glossy, frangrant, inviting.
Chua Lam, one of the most well-known food critics in the Chinese-speaking world and a strong advocate for lard, lists lard rice in his ‘Foods to Eat before One Dies’:
In terms of grains, white rice is superior. A bowl of lard rice will bring me tears of joy. What? You are afraid of eating lard? I would rather die! There is no other way.
As sumptuous as it is, it requires very little effort as long you have some lard ready at your hands. It is one of those dishes that I would crave late at night, cycling from the city after a long day, tired and hungry as I reach my flat. All I have energy for is to turn on the rice cooker.
When the cooker chimes, all you need is lard and soy sauce.
To Make Lard Rice
It is so simple yet it’s difficult to pin down a recipe. For a small bowl of rice — those bowls you get in Chinese restaurants, you need about 3/4 to to 1 tablespoon of lard, and about 2 teaspoon of light soy sauce. You need a decent amount of soy sauce to balance the fattiness of the lard, but the precise mostly to taste and depends on the brand, so best to start with 1 teaspoon and gradually add until satisfactory.
The key here is to have very hot rice, freshly scooped out from your cooker or pot. Lard is solid at room temperature, so you really need the heat from the rice to melt the lard. If you like spring onion, finish with a small sprig, chopped finely. That little freshness really makes a difference here.
Since it requires so few ingredients, it is best to get high quality short grain rice and soy sauce. Most importantly, I would really recommend rendering your own lard.
To Render Lard
It is a bit of a hassle and slighly time consuming, but homemade versions offers more possibilities in flavours.
Historically, lard in China is rendered from pork suet due to its purer fat content, but this doesn’t taste as good and is not easily available in London. Pork belly fat and fatback are the other common options, each offering slightly different flavours profiles. I went for pork belly fat as it was available in my local butchers.
There steps are simple and I have put video highlights on Instagram for the full process:
Optional simple cleanse in a large pot: start with cold water, submerge fat, bring to boil for a 2-3 minutes, take it out
Cut the whole piece up into cubes
In a clean pan, add a cup of water, then the fat cubes, and maintain medium heat until the water starts to boil, then turn the heat down for a gentle simmer
As the water evaporates, lard will be rendered out, the fat cubes will harden in the process. Be careful to take out pieces that brown quicker to avoid burning.
Sieve the lard before pouring into a jar.
The key here really is to go low and slow, perhaps even meditatively so. If you want to be precise, the temperature should be about 120C.
The simplest version of lard does not require anything else, but I have added slices of ginger as a personal preference (which I highly recommend). You can also add other aromatics during the rendering process, for example nutmeg or tsaoko. Whole spices only though, and take care to ensure they do not burn.
Before finishing the process, I would add a teaspoon of white granulated sugar which will help the lard last longer. You can add salt too for the same effect, but I find adding sweetness works better with pork fat (think maple and bacon).
Keep in a cool dry place and it will last at least a couple of months.
Afterword
As part of writing this post, I did some background reading about lard. In case you didn’t know, the myth of lard being ‘extra unhealthy’ is proven untrue, it is now considered to be healthier than butter.
The health myth is also the reason that led to the collapse of the lard market post-WWII. The lard market never recovered in the west, whereas lard is still very much an essential part of Chinese cooking. As of 2018, China is by far the largest producer of lard according to the FAO.
I also read a little more about how lard is used in historical/traditional Chinese dishes. One of the most beautiful ones that I came across is Amber Radish, from Yuan Mei’s Recipes from the Garden of Contentment (published in 1792), with only 4 ingredients:
用熟猪油炒萝卜，加虾米煨之，以极熟为度。临起加葱花，色如琥珀。
Stir-fry the radishes with cooked lard, add dried shrimps and slowly simmer until extremely tender. Sprinkle spring onion just before plating, the [radish] colours like amber.
You might soon see me making this.
Finally and as always, thank you for reading :)
想起家里以前炒菜第一步总是直接肥肉“炼锅” 现在也换作用植物油了
More than 10 years ago my parents used to fry fatty pork pieces as the first step to stir frying any veg, though now they only use plant oils. I do miss the taste of freshly made lard with food. Thanks for the post!