The timeless ingredient in Grandma's cooking was love right? I hate to break it to you, but it was probably lard. Lard from pastured pigs is creamy and buttery and pale white and is a totally different product than what's on grocery shelves. Rendering lard is very easy, just a little time consuming. Pick up a few pounds of leaf lard and take it home and thaw it out. Then dice it into cubes and put it in a roaster or slow cooker on low. After two or three hours open the lid and ladle off the liquid. Put it through a strainer, or two. Then pour it into a mason jar. In addition to storing some in mason jars I measure out 1 and 2/3 cups and freeze them in small bread pans or plastic containers. Once they're frozen solid you can pop them out and store them in a gallon bag in the freezer ready to go into all of your breads and pies! After about six hours you'll have gotten pretty much all of the lard. You can freeze the remaining chunks of fat for green beans or dog treats. You can freeze lard almost indefinitely or store it in the fridge for easy access. We use it for frying eggs, cooking veggies, brownies, pie crusts and about anything else you can think of! If you need more ways to use it check out the cookbook Lard: The lost art of cooking with your grandmother's secret ingredient.