Would you advocate cooking with lard in your childs cooking class?

[Tryphena68]

Hi Mumsnetters,

I'm not a regular poster on here but I'd really like a balanced opinion on something.

My daughter has a recipe for cooking in school today (Year 7) and it includes lard. The recipe is for cookies. I think this is awful, we've never bought lard, my 21 year old daughter didn't even know what it was when I told her this yesterday! I can't see why margarine or olive oil can't be used instead. So I haven't let her make the cookies, she is doing the alternative Cheese and Potato pie instead.

What worries me is the attitude of the school. Apparently since they have een making this recipe for years they don's want to change it and I am the only person ever to complain. I think it is wrong to teach children to cook with a bad saturated fat. When I asked the Head of Food Science about this she said a lot, but made the comment "Where do you want to take this? We use white flour, are you tring to say we should all switch to wholemeal?". I said well, yes! Why not? It would teach them good habits.

How do you feel about this issue? I am especially p off as we have huge healthy eating campaigns aimed at us a s parent to make sure the kids eat fresh food and yet they contradict this in school!

Thanks, if you got this far x

lardy cake is luverly. But the sort of food you feel so bad for eating. All that sugar and fat ....

Animal fats like butter and lard are in fact good for you. Olive oil is also great, but I would steer clear of margarine. Most of the people who live past 100 eat foods that are the exact opposite of what we are told are good for us. Recently somebody over 100 put their longevity down to eating a chunk of lard every day. A 110 year old also ate lots of lard
www.second-opinions.co.uk/110-plus.html

I can understand the OP's reaction, because she rightly says that we are constantly bombarded with these healthy eating campaigns telling us that these saturated fats are unhealthy. I think it just shows us that so much of what the "experts" tell us is hooey.

pah - oat cakes aren't proper biscuits

It amazes me that people are advertising muppets.
margarines with trans fats are not a healthier options.
And some fats are GOOD FOR YOU!!

Bloody Nora. What do they teach at schools these days?

My mum used to do chips in lard, they were lovely.

Just today there was an article in one of the heavies by a cardiologist saying that we were eating too much saturated fat. He was blaming butter particularly, which I felt was a bit unfair. Surely most of the 'overload' of saturated fats comes in sweets, takeaways, shop-bought cakes and biscuits, etc?

Chips done in lard are fab. It has a higher smoking point than a lot of vegetable fats.

Lard is great.

Yabu and pretty thick with it. The head at your children's school sounds v sensible and smart.

sounds like a case of a v old DS teacher, IMO.

1. lard not acceptable to vegetarians, Muslims or Jews
2. Many families unlikely to have lard in the house
3. Lard not a common ingredient now, and a v strange cookie recipe

I have had 3 dcs all do Food tech (2 at GCSE) and never have they been asked to use lard. I could imagine it if they were doing a project on 'fats and their features'! but not otherwise. Lard is what I was taught to make pastry with and I am...ever so old. But, I wouldn't have complained about it, just sent dc in with alternative (my dcs more than capable of explaining themselves)

This looks an interesting recipe - you can use butter, margarine or lard.

Here's the article I felt was unfairly maligning butter (according to a heart surgeon).

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/ban-butter-to-save-lives-says-heart -surgeon-1870920.html

Hang on, the question was "How do you feel about this issue?" and yet "simple yes and no would've sufficed"? Not sure how one answers a "how do you feel about X" question with a simple yes or no...

I assume a vegetarian, Muslim or Jewish person would have the wit to substitute vegetable shortening (although some of that has trans fats in, which I would be more concerned about than lard, so would need to shop carefully).

Lard is a cultural thing. When Roy Hattersley dropped out of Have I Got News For You at an hour's notice a few years ago (not the first time he'd done it) they replaced him with a tub of lard that sat in the spot next to Paul Merton throughout as a joke/comment/protest. People get described (not very nicely, admittedly) as lardbuckets or lardy. Historical fiction and history references lard. It's an ingredient in a number of things that are readily available (e.g. mince pies, unless they are vegetarian) although it tends to be referred to as "shortening" there.

That's why I'm shocked that someone can get to 21 without knowing what it is, not because you don't eat pastry . It's a cultural and general knowledge thing. I don't eat tripe. I don't know anyone who eats tripe. I have no intention of ever eating tripe, unless under some rather bizarre set of circumstances my life depended on it. I feel no shame for not eating tripe. But I still know what it is.

And if there was something I objected to so much that I was prepared to make an stand over it with a school I'd make darn sure that my children had heard of it before they reached adulthood. Otherwise they might feed it to my grandchildren.

My mum always had loads of lard in. Used it in home cooking. How I longed for a vesta curry.

YABU
It's lard, not arsenic.
Melting moments are made with lard - was that what they were making?
Lard is just a sort of fat, and at least a natural one, better than margarine. But if you don't like it, or are veggie, or Jewish or Muslim, then use Trex.
Still, it's amusing me imagining what the teachers are saying about you in the staff room!

abride, thanks for that interesting article. Thank God for the comments section in these articles, there is often so much more sense in there than in the main article

OP - are you the ready made pasta woman?

You are, aren't you?

I need a lardy cake nooowww

WHyyy is noone looking after my health?

OP you are a total loon. It's a bit of lard in a cookie recipe - they aren't teaching your child to shoot up! Telling children a food is bad is a great way to foster issues with food in general. Certain diets lead to ill health but eating high fat food in moderation doesn't. Her body needs energy - it needs fat - in appropriate quantities. You're not Bonsoiranna in disguise are you? Think on - this is about what you want your dd to end up like alright - making a massive fuss if any fat accidentally passes her lips and generally being miserable? Or a balanced individual who can make good food from a range of ingredients?

Not read any comments but to the OP, I think you really need to chill out!

there is probably more fat in a cheese and potato pie than a few cookies with a bit of lard in

lol @ lard.

I wouldn't advocate it but it wouldn't bother me.

Is lard substituting the butter? Or have I come to this thread far too late to ever catch up

yes choosing potato and cheese pie as the healthier option did strike me as a bit odd!

Perhaps the cheese was actually cheese substitute knitted from organic low fat yoghurt and the potatoes were actually just the skins.

Claig--he (cardiologist) did seem out of touch with up-to-date nutritional advice, didn't he!

abride, I think a lot of this advice needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, looks like it is timed to fit in with "the Food Standards Agency, which will today start the second phase of its saturated fat awareness campaign"

Lol at mattsmith.. Northernlurker, you do know we're not allowed to say loon any more, don't you?

75 posts on lard! Some kind of record?