I’ve been calling around various grocery stores this week, trying to get a hold of pork fat trimmings so that I can make my own lard for some recipes. One of the stores I called today said that they couldn’t give me the trimmings because they don’t have a code for it. I forget exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, “so you’re just going to throw it away instead?” “Yes.”
I understand that it does require some effort to separate from the rest of the waste, so I don’t mind paying a bit, but its upsetting that they have no way to pass scraps along to someone who will use them instead of just tossing them in the waste.
Edit for anyone invested: I called around to a few other stores after making this post. One or two mentioned that they don’t necessarily throw all of those bits away, but often use them for other products, such as sausages. I also found a store that will be putting aside their trimmings for me tomorrow, and they should have more than I need. It’s almost an hour away on the bus, but right next to another store that should have any other hard to find ingredients that I’ll need for the tamales.
Also interesting was that different locations of the same chains had different answers for me regarding even their ability to provide the scraps to me, so the suggestions that a manager might be able to make it happen are probably very accurate.
If it’s so much effort to try and get fat trimmings from butchers, why not just buy a block of lard from the supermarket?
My main reasoning is that I just wanted to try making it from scratch at least once, just for the experience. A secondary reason is that I guess I’m technically looking for “manteca de puerco”, which has more pork flavor than the shelf stable lard available at the closest grocery stores, so I have to make a special trip to get the right stuff anyway, and I’m just exploring my options as to how to get a hold of the necessary ingredients.
Where I grew up, there’s multiple huge Mexican grocery stores, so it’s easy to get exactly what I need in one stop, but where I live now, I have to go to multiple stores to get everything, and still have to make do with some minor substitutions (eg. frozen banana leaves instead of fresh).
Fair enough, I agree the situation is mildly infuriating, whatever the reason you wanted it. A lot of restaurant/pub chains over here will throw out extra food if they prepped too much, rather than letting staff take it, probably because they don’t want people creating waste on purpose but also don’t want to spend the minimal effort required to stop people abusing the system if they allowed people to take excess food home. The distrust of low paid workers leads to most stores being unable to deal with special requests unless you are speaking to the manager and I don’t know where I’m going with this…
Is it really from scratch if you don’t raise the piglet and butcher it yourself?
It’s a trade off, if you want old school butcher store service, you’re gonna pay old school butcher store specialty pricing (which is usually at least double what you’re going to pay for the same cut in a supermarket)
Not sure if they still exist, but look for a butcher or maybe a deli. Chain stores have no humanity left.
I did eventually find a store that said they’d have some for me tomorrow, and said they’d put aside about 10lb! I think I only need about 5lb, but depending on what they’re charging, I might just take it all.
Reminds me of the time I created the Triple Whopper for all of Germany. The Burger King in the Cologne Main Station had a “Your Way” section where you could make them assemble a Whopper exactly how you want it Subway style.
One day I encountered an especially enthusiastic cook and asked her for three patties instead of the maximum of two they had on the menu. She obliged me and also put on a ton of salad and onions and lots of love. I’ve never had a better Whopper in my life.
Anyways, she didn’t know what to charge me so she just pulled a number out of her arse and let me pay that. A few months later the Triple Whopper appeared on the menu at a much higher price point than what I paid. I like to think that it’s my fault.
Meanwhile in America, in 1996 McDonalds had a regional burger that was quarter pounder meat. Meaning each patty is 1/4th a pound of meat before cooking. They put 8 of these patties and 7 middle buns, and 10 slices of cheese. They called it the “Big Mac Daddy”. My mom called it “The Big Mac McHeart Attack”
Just to be clear, even in 1996, the Big Mac, while it was bigger than it is today, it was NEVER quarter pounder meat by default. It was always the same meat the standard cheeseburger would have, with 2 patties, and 1 middle bun. This thing was huge. The local news measured it. It was 7 inches tall. I was 13 at the time, but kinda dumb. I said “Imagine putting 7 inches of meat inside you…” and my sister, who’s 11 years older than me, would not stop laughing. I didn’t know why…now I know why, and I’m cringing all these years later. It’s just as bad as when I was 7, and wouldn’t eat my brocoli. When my mom asked why, I said I didn’t like the texture burning on my tongue. She said “Brocoli isn’t spicy.” And I said “No, not spicy. It’s more like a carpet burn on your tongue”. And my mom was confused. I said “It’s like when slide really really fast over the carpet, and your belly burns because you did it too fast…well licking brocoli is like licking carpet. You get carpet burn”
And my sister would not stop laughing. Again, I didn’t know why then, but now I’m cringing so hard. I’m sure my mom nor my sister would remember those things, but I remember it was maybe a week before thanksgiving 1993, and I also remember it was Saturday morning, because X-Men was playing on tv in the background, but it was on commercial. So this must have been between 11:00-11:30 on a Saturday in November.
Back on topic, my mom refused to let me buy the Big Mac Daddy. She said “YOU’RE NOT EATING THAT MUCH FAST FOOD AT ONCE! IT’S NOT HEALTHY!!!” And, while she wasn’t wrong per se, she WAS still taking us to McDonalds…and when is that EVER healthy? So, she was right, but also…was she really the one to stand on that point?
I remember a friend of mine once ordering a Double Triple Whopper and being annoyed that Burger King’s definition of “double” is “with one extra patty”. So he had to order a Double Double Double Triple Whopper to get the desired result.
They delivered the thing to our table together with a knife and fork. I guess ordering an unholy totem pole of meat like that gets you table service at a BK.
The other thing that was notable about it was that the three "Double"s only added three patties to the burger and nothing else. As a result this caricature of a burger was now 80% overcooked ground beef and extremely dry.
He ate half of it. We took the other half home, put it in the microwave and drowned it in ketchup, which greatly increased it’s edibility. It still sucked, though.
Wow, that’s crazy! I actually worked at a Subway for a while, and we definitely had an “extra meat” button, but as long as the manager wasn’t around, we could get away with lots of freebies. I think the only things that were actually inventoried, and therefore had to be paid for, were bread and drink cups.
This meant that we could go crazy with our shift sandwiches. As long as we rang in the “sandwich” part, the add ons didnt matter. We could have all the fountain soda we wanted in our own cups, but if we wanted a paper cup, we had to pay full price for the cup.
I also recall a story where someone’s friend came in with a loaf of bread (French loaf or something from the grocery store next door, basically a mini party sub) in the evening, and the employee made them a free (giant) sandwich.
If you have one, a local butcher might be a better solution.
