cuban
bus

Making the lard and crispy bits, aka the lard. I always make at least two kilos of pork fat at a time. It is a slow process, and I keep lard in my freezer. However many crispy bits I have, either go into Cuban buns or bread dumplings.

My Chinese grocer [THuan Phat, Adelaide Central Markets] gives me very fresh pork fat, but I know that he only charges a few dollars for it. The fat needs to be fresh and white. Bring it home, remove the skin and freeze it for another purpose and cut it into 2 cm cubes. Lay it out on a tray covered with Freezer-go-Between and put it in the freezer for a couple of hours.

Set up your mincer with the coarsest mincing attachment and mince the fat. Select a heavy-bottomed saucepan that has a lid. Induction is best for this. Place it on very low heat and stir from time to time. It will take about three hours. When the pork bits are rendered and start to colour you need to keep a better watch.

When the bits are golden sieve them off and press hard against them to push out as much lard as possible and then spread them out on a double layer of paper towel. Press another layer of paper towel on top to dry them out as much as possible. Once cold, you should be able to crumble them. Funnily enough in Austria they are called Krummel.

The hard part is not salting them eating them before they get into the buns.