On 08/05/2011 10:33 AM, Kristina Carlton wrote:


>
> I usually buy a half beef and a whole pig from a farmer who has
> grass-fed cows and pastured pigs. I get all the muscle fat that comes
> with them and sometimes buy additional bags of unrendered muscle fat
> from him. I then render it in a cast iron skillet at the lowest
> setting on my stove. I place the liquid fat in jars and use it on
> meat or eat it with a spoon and some salt on it, and I eat the
> leftover cracklings with salt.

There is no fat on the grass-finished cow meat that I get, and the 
farmer says there isn't even any on the back in front of the tail.
If it's finished on feed store corn that's marked "Unfit for Human 
Consumption"...
I've seen photos of grass-fed swine. There's no fat on them either.

The cracklings made me sick, but then I can't eat cooked meat often, and 
it must be near rare.

I'd suspect the fat.

William