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I fry our Thanksgiving Turkey every year and usually do it in high quality Canola Oil (yes I know quality and Canola should not be in the same sentence) however I would like to do it in Duck and/or Pork fat. I know this stuff is usually pretty expensive and if I keep it below 350 degrees can strain the oil and reuse it. Is there anyplace to get some good duck or pork fat in bulk for cheap?

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 Don't give us your address because you'll get tons of Paleohackers show up at your house for Thanksgiving. – Carl_Stawicki Sep 20 2011 at 14:56
...as long as there is no canola oil involved. – ROB Sep 20 2011 at 21:09
I was gonna say, but Carl beat me to it! – Cody Sep 21 2011 at 0:21
Haha, if you live in Quebec I would say go down to the grocery store...okay, look at the jars beside the meat section. Those big, white jars are all duck fat. Gotta love the Quebecois! I have more duck fat in my fridge than butter. – JeJ Feb 7 2012 at 2:33

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I lattice my Thanksgiving Turkey with bacon... the REALLY thick kind. I found amazing thick cut bacon at Whole Foods and Sunflowers Market (though the one at Sunflowers market had nitrates) and you can even ask at the deli counter if they have a slab, and ask them to cut some for you.

Weave it over the top. It's AMAZING.

Granted, after everything is cooked, the bacon is totally trashed and not edible, but the turkey is wonderfully moist and flavorful. I remove the bacona bout 15 minutes prior to reverything being done and toss the bird back in the oven, then broil on "Lo" for 5 minutes to brown the pretty little guy up.

2010 Turkey

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wow!.......*drool* – Scrubjay Sep 20 2011 at 16:32
Great idea, it looks absolutely amazing. How much did your turkey weigh? Do you have any after pics of the cooked bird? – Simibee Sep 20 2011 at 17:04
oh shizz! ........... – none Sep 20 2011 at 19:21
Vern, you are a god among men! – Cody Sep 21 2011 at 0:22
Goddess. thank you. :) It was about a 15 lb bird and I used about 1.25 lbs of bacon. I have photos of the "after", but sadly they are on a hard drive in a defunct computer. – Vern Sep 22 2011 at 22:07
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Turkey fryers came into vogue precisely because of cheap industrial frying fats. It can't possibly be worth it to use and then discard all that healthy fat. Lard has a smoke point of 375F so you'd possibly be OK to reuse but that would be a vast quantity of fat. Most turkey fryers require 12 quarts (48 cups) of fat. At 1849 calories/cup = almost 100K calories to potentially re-use, so if it's gone bad you'll possibly do some damage.

I can get pastured lard for $5/qt, or supermarket lard for $3/qt. So it's a $40-60 investment. I'd rather invest $50 in a pastured turkey and do the bacon fat lattice myself!

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Matt, where do you get pastured lard? (I'm hoping online; I can't find anything but hydrogenated lard where I am). – Scrubjay Sep 20 2011 at 16:33
I'm in central Pennsylvania, farm country. One of the farmers renders his lard and brings it to the farmer's market. I think he used to go down to the DC area for a market as well. I've never actually looked at that $3 container of lard at the supermarket, perhaps it's hydrogenated... – Matt B Sep 20 2011 at 17:59
^^ Lucky guy! Thanks for responding. – Scrubjay Sep 20 2011 at 20:05
Look for the lard in the cold section. My local grocery stores (i.e. NOT WALMART) have it. – Cody Sep 21 2011 at 0:25
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Roasting ducks throw off an enormous quantity of fat. If you got into duck between now and Thanksgiving, you would certainly be able to reserve enough fat yourself to fry a turkey in.

Other than that, I'd consult your butcher. I know that Mexican grocery stores often sell good lard for low prices, too. Alternately, you could look for specialty suppliers on chowhound.com, which is great for sourcing ingredients.

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I think hemanvt means to deep fry the turkey, so that will take a lot more than the fat from one duck. – henny Sep 20 2011 at 15:02
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 I did get that—but I meant if he got into duck, like, swapped it in for chicken or other meats between now and Thanksgiving. Roasting a duck produces about a pint of rendered fat. If he needed, say, 3 gallons of oil to fry a turkey, he could get it from roasting about 24 ducks, which would work out to about two ducks a week between now and Thanksgiving. I'm a single girl, and roast a chicken a week—it's not unreasonable that a family ("our" Thanksgiving turkey) would eat two roast birds a week. It's kind of a long shot still, but an economic option! – curious Sep 20 2011 at 16:02
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 Make that 48 ducks. I stripped the carcass for the meat, so much of the fat went with the meat. I roasted the remains for 3 hours and recovered the fine cooked meat (rillettes), along with 1/2 pint each of fat and liquid stock. The rillettes got added to salsa. The stock made a nice salmon chowder. The precious fat is being used for pan frying a tablespoon at a time. At $20 per duck this is $300 per gallon liquid gold(en). – thhq Sep 20 2011 at 16:32

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