Pastry receipe

[cedros]

In Ajijic, you can buy lard at the butcher shop at the corner of Marcos Castellanos and Guadalupe Victoria, right in front of the fountain on the "art walk".

In Morelia, I buy it from my butcher at our neighborhood tianguis. All I do is take a small plastic container (Tupperware or whatever) and have the butcher fill it up. The container I use holds a quarter kilo (1/2 lb). The butcher shop will do the same thing for you. The lard keeps forever in the refrigerator.

You do not want to buy the godawful pre-packaged Mexican white lard sold in bricks; it's horrible. The recently rendered lard from the butcher is marvelous. I use it for many things, including preparing Chinese stir-fries; today's comida was stir-fried beef and broccoli in oyster sauce. The lard gives Chinese food a much richer flavor than peanut or vegetable oil does.

And MountainGal is right: lard is much healthier for you than other shortenings and the calorie content is the same. Same thing with butter: it's healthier for you than margarine, and the calorie content is the same. Fat calories are fat calories.

Soriana also sells manteca de cerdo-in yogurt sized containers.

I made some pastry using butter as shortening. The receipe said to have the butter at room temperature. I was using Eugenia brand butter but at room temperature it was virtually a liquid-impossible to cut into the flour. I couldn't get it solid fast enough so I used imported butter. The pastry turned out very well. I used Selecta brand flour. Now to try it with manteca de cerdo.