Still, the leaf lard crust was as gorgeous as I remembered.

A dozen or so pies down, it was finally time to pull out my hero, the rendered leaf lard.

But leaf lard is hard to track down (I special-ordered it from a friendly butcher) and a headache once you get it.

Today leaf lard is hard to find, but ginger is no longer esoteric, and bok choy and hoisin can be found in supermarkets.

pig lane leaf lard: 500 gram

The highest grade of lard, known as leaf lard, is obtained from the "flare" visceral fat deposit surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin.

The leaf lard may have made great crust, but, like homemade cassoulet and puff pastry, this was a culinary Everest I felt no need to climb twice.

Sinclair's account of workers falling into rendering tanks and being ground along with animal parts into "Durham's Pure Leaf Lard", gripped the public.

A stone crock of lard, a smaller one of the fine leaf lard, another of headcheese ... I had my doubts about that.

Fatback is "hard fat", distinct from the visceral fat that occurs in the abdominal cavity and is called "soft fat" and leaf lard.

This is similar to the "Durham's Pure Leaf Lard" theme in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.

Leaf lard has little pork flavor, making it ideal for use in baked goods, where it is valued for its ability to produce flaky, moist pie crusts.

Because what they didn't see was the outsize effort that went into acquiring and preparing the not-so-secret ingredient: leaf lard, the creamy white fat that surrounds a hog's kidneys.

Consumers seeking a higher-quality source of lard typically seek out artisanal producers of rendered lard, or render it themselves from leaf lard or fatback.

When, for instance, a man had fallen into one of the rendering tanks and had been made into pure leaf lard and peerless fertilizer, there was no use letting the fact out and making his family unhappy.

Rendered leaf lard can be purchased from the Flying Pigs Farm stand at the Union Square and Grand Army Plaza Greenmarkets on Saturdays, or by mail order from Dietrich's Meats, (610) 756-6344, www.dietrichsmeats.com.

Here was the headquarters of Durham's Pure Leaf Lard, of Durham's Breakfast Bacon, Durham's Canned Beef, Potted Ham, Deviled Chicken, Peerless Fertilizer!

Everest became a lot more manageable when I discovered that rendered leaf lard was available at the Flying Pigs Farm stand at the Union Square and Grand Army Plaza Greenmarkets on Saturday and by mail order.

When Upton Sinclair and the muckrakers investigated dangerous packing-plant conditions in Chicago, they found that several Verger employees had been rendered into h lard inadvertently, canned and sold as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard, a favorite of bakers.