From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lard is an animal fat produced from the fatty or otherwise unusable parts of pig carcasses. It is used for cooking, commonly used in British, German, Polish and Mexican cuisine. Toward the late 20th century it began to be regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils such as olive and sunflower.
Lard was widely used as a butter substitute during World War II when butter was unavailable. As a waste product of pork production, lard has historically been cheaper than vegetable oils and thus featured prominently in poor people's diet until the industrial revolution made vegetable oils more affordable.
