Lard is pig fat, obtained by rendering down the deposits which exist between the flesh and the skin and around the internal organs of pig carcasses. It is bland and white, and its ubiquity in an age when pigs were kept by all those who could afford them made it very important in the traditional cookery of Europe, the Americas, and China. The fat of the pig was an article of almost as much value as the meat. Lard contains much saturated fat, and this, combined with an image as poverty food and the increased availability of butter and oils, means that it is less important than formerly in the developed world.
