Cow chip biscuits: classic chuckwagon-style flat lard biscuits with flour, milk, baking powder, and salt. Six-ingredient pantry biscuits with crisp edges and tender centers.
Heart-shaped sugar cookies made the old-fashioned way with lard, sour milk, and a hint of nutmeg. Tender, slightly flaky cut-outs ready for royal icing or sprinkles. A Valentine's Day classic.
Chocolate cocoa waffles fold beaten egg whites into a cocoa batter for crisp-edged, fluffy dessert waffles. Serve hot with whipped cream and berries for after-dinner indulgence.
Dutch-style icebox spice cookies with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a brown sugar dough enriched with butter, lard and sour cream. Slice-and-bake rolls keep weeks in the fridge for instant warm cookies.
Grandma Cottington's pumpkin pie is a heritage Thanksgiving classic: flaky butter-and-lard double crust, custardy pumpkin filling with cream, molasses, cinnamon, and allspice. Yields 2 pies.
Old-fashioned fluffy pancakes made with lard for extra-tender, crispy-edged stacks. Seven ingredient batter that comes together in ten minutes for breakfast or brunch.
Cornmeal pancakes with melted lard, plenty of baking powder, and a tender, slightly grainy crumb. A 15-minute breakfast pancake with old-fashioned corn flavor and crispy edges.
These are hotcakes from the isle of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia.
My mother's recipe from a page torn out of a cookbook years ago. Great for leftovers.
These tasty boiled greens with bacon can be used as a side dish or as a light lunch when on the go.
A quick and easy breakfast scrambled eggs with some Mexican flair!
A make-ahead Italian Spaghetti that can be ready in a flash. Just re-heat and serve.
A tasty Puerto Rican sauce using bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic and onions.
Buzzard's breath chili is a big-batch, no-beans Texas chili: a mountain of ground beef simmered with pure ground red chile, cumin and oregano, thickened with masa harina. A bold, meaty bowl of red for a crowd.
Nachos from scratch, or make these nachos quick and easy by using store bought refried beans and tortilla chips.
Traditional Irish black pudding made from pig's liver, blood, lard, breadcrumbs, and oatmeal. The classic full Irish breakfast component, sliced and fried until crisp. Served with streaky bacon and eggs.
Hot cakes recipe folds beaten egg whites into a sour-milk batter with melted lard for old-fashioned pancakes that puff tall and tender. Eight pantry ingredients.
German pancake batter baked in a bread pan and topped with sliced apples or savory pork cracklings. Dust fruit version with sugar or salt the crackling one for traditional flavor.
Chiles en Nogada, Mexico's patriotic dish: roasted poblanos stuffed with a sweet-savory pork picadillo, draped in a cool, creamy walnut sauce and scattered with ruby pomegranate seeds. The green, white, and red of the flag on one plate.
Traditional Chinese almond cookies with crumbly texture, pressed with apricot pits or whole almonds. Refrigerated slice-and-bake dough keeps for weeks.
Grilled game sausage patties of ground duck, pork shoulder, and pancetta with cinnamon and cumin, wrapped in caul fat. Served on garlicky wilted kale with balsamic reduction.
Whole herrings coated in crunchy oatmeal, pan-fried until golden, and served with caramelized apple rings. This traditional Irish breakfast or supper pairs rich fish with sweet fruit in under 15 minutes.
Rabbit hoggan, a traditional Cornish lard-pastry parcel stuffed with rabbit, potato, turnip, and carrot. Tin miner's lunch from the West Country, baked free-form.
Paper-thin Italian crepes from Emilia-Romagna, spread with a savory lardo-prosciutto-rosemary paste and showered in Parmigiano-Reggiano. Rustic, rich, and utterly addictive street food you can make at home.
Funnel cake batter is poured through a funnel into hot fat in a swirling spiral, fried until golden, then dusted with confectioners sugar. The state-fair classic, made at home.
A rustic German egg dish: leftover cooked beef fried with golden onions and lightly beaten eggs. Serve with cranberries and a crisp green salad for a fast, satisfying meal.
Mancha Manteles, the Mexican 'tablecloth stainer,' simmers turkey and chorizo in a rich mole of ancho, pasilla, and serrano chiles, almonds, and sesame, sweetened with pineapple, apple, and banana. Sweet, smoky, and spicy.
Mole de guajolote is a traditional Mexican turkey in mole sauce made from scratch with ancho, mulato, and pasilla chilies, chocolate, sesame seeds, peanuts, and warm spices.
Fork-tender beef pot roast braised in a sloppy joe-spiced tomato sauce with potatoes, carrots, and zucchini. A low-and-slow one-pot dinner that feeds a hungry crowd.
German Hackbraten (Falscher Hase) meatloaf recipe made with ground beef and pork, roasted with onions, garlic and yellow turnip until the crust turns deeply golden. A traditional oven-roasted meatloaf sliced and served with its own pan juices over potato salad.
Mexican red snapper tostadas with herb-poached fish, fried tomato-olive topping, and shredded lettuce on crispy tortillas. A traditional Huachinango preparation from scratch.
Hungarian paprika schnitzel: veal cutlets dredged in seasoned flour, seared with paprika-laced onions, and braised gently in sour cream. A classic Central European supper dish.
Homemade flour tortillas made with just flour, salt, lard, and water. Soft, blistered tortillas in three sizes from a 4-ingredient dough that beats anything store-bought.
A medieval English blancmange: tender poached chicken folded into creamy almond milk rice with butter and ground almonds, topped with golden fried almonds. A savory, centuries-old dish brought to life.
Felvideki finom nulleves, a hearty Hungarian hare soup from the Upper Highlands with root vegetables, lard-browned liver roux, and rice. Old-country game cookery from the Felvidek region.
Nashville fried biscuits made from a yeasted dough with lard, dropped into hot fat until golden and puffy. A big-batch Southern recipe that freezes well for later.
Tender beef chuck pot roast slow-simmered in a tangy homemade barbecue sauce with ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, and Worcestershire. Fork-tender and packed with smoky-sweet flavor.
Oatmeal crusty top apple pie pairs a tender lard-and-oat bottom crust with a brown sugar streusel topping. Cinnamon-spiced apples bake under a crunchy oat crumble for a single-crust pie that drinks like dessert and breakfast at once.
Gruibensalat, Austrian crackling salad, pairs warm sliced potatoes with sharp onion and sizzling pork cracklings fried in lard. Rustic German-speaking Alpine farmhouse fare.
Poor Man's Cake: a Depression-era boiled raisin cake spiced with cinnamon, cloves and allspice. No eggs, no milk, no butter. Just pantry basics, lard and the magic of plumped raisins.
Homemade refried beans mashed to a creamy, lard-kissed puree with queso fresco crumbles and crispy tortilla chips. A 35-minute Mexican side dish that puts the canned stuff to shame.
Haebernes Mus, a rustic German oatmeal mush pan-fried in lard until crispy. Just 4 ingredients for a hearty, old-world peasant dish with golden, crunchy edges.
Old-fashioned jelly top cookies made with molasses, lard, and warm spices. Rolled, dipped in egg white and sugar, then topped with a jewel of firm jelly.
Ground pork peanut butter cookies made with lard, browned pork, cinnamon, and orange zest. A savory-sweet heritage cookie recipe unlike anything in your cookie jar.
Rugged, no-bean chili made with ground beef and chewy wheat berries simmered in a smoky chile, tomato, and cumin broth. A Southwestern twist on Texas red that's hearty enough to stick to your ribs.
Traditional possum stuffing: a rustic breadcrumb stuffing with sauteed onion, chopped liver, hard-boiled egg, and Worcestershire sauce. A historic American wild-game recipe.
A quick sweet and sour sauce with green pepper, raisins, soy sauce, and vinegar tossed with leftover cooked meat. Use chicken, turkey, beef, or pork. Dinner for two from leftovers.
Teisen Sir Fon: a traditional Welsh fruit cake from Anglesey, made with lard, molasses, mixed spice, ginger, and dried fruit. Humble, deeply flavored, and rooted in North Wales tea-time baking.