Lard, Rye, Grit and what’s really good for you

• flickr/Steve Snodgrass
• Lard has become almost a dirty four-letter word in today’s culinary world.

When Colby and Megan Garrelts opened their newest restaurant, Rye, in Leawood this past December, they made a shocking admission: The flaky crusts for the house-baked lemon-meringue pie and molasses-rich MoKan nut pie were made with lard. Yes, lard, that legendary ingredient which creates the lightest, flakiest pie crusts – and renders such a dessert verboten to vegetarians. (As Fat City has reported before, it’s rare to find a restaurant or bakery ready to admit using the product anymore.)

The Garreltses aren’t alone in celebrating lard. The joys of rendered pig are espoused in a cookbook (published by Kansas City-based Andrews McMeel) titled 100% Natural Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking With Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient. The softbound cookbook was created by the editors of Grit Magazine, whose editor-in-chief, Oscar H. Will III, tells Fat City: “Lard is making a comeback, partly because of the slow-food movement and partly because the lipid hypothesis – that saturated fats are dangerous – has been debunked.”