Picked up about 5 pounds of hog fat yesterday, and trying to render it down into lard.
Anyone on here try this?
Using a crock pot on low, overnight, now it's on warm .
Checking on it and string it every few hours.
Added water to let it float.

Don’t add water. Just cook the fat down on low.

I've always done it on the stovetop. No water for me. Set the fire as low as it will go. I like to chill and grind the fat first. Do it the same for bear fat.

I read to use water to prevent scorching it.
I figure to scoop what doesn't melt off , the strain into wide mouth pint jars.
Put in the refrigerator to set it up, upside down .
Then place in a bowl of hot water to get it melt some, so that it slides out onto a cutting board.
Then slice off the scraps that should float to the top.
There's a lot of different ways to do it.
Just trying it with lard before I do my tallow later.

Looks like doing it without water, you can make pork rinds .

When I was a kid, my grandfather and uncle slaughtered pigs on the farm. My mother would render the lard in a turkey pan on the gas stove. Skim off anything that floats. Pour into hot Ball canning jars if I remember correctly. There were always bits of fried pork at the bottom of pan (cracklings?).
You don't want water in it, it's basically hot grease.

The reason I put water in is that the fat will float, once the jars are turned upside down , the water will be on the bottom of the jar, remove the lard, and pour out the water.
Cut off the scraps on the bottom of the lard and remelt , strain and then jar it up.
It's my first time doing it.
Thanks for all the responses, I understand them all, will try it different next time.
Searching the net , found so many different ways to do it.
Me being me, I know I would let it burn.

Just trimmed a couple butts and rendered the fat in an aluminum throw away pan on the side burner of my grill. strained it through a coffee filter... i did add a little water to start so it wouldn't scorch but it cooks off pretty fast...

It's not the good leaf fat but it's still good...

Don't have to worry about scorching it in a slow cooker.

We use to make about 20lbs when I was a kid in the 50s. Had a large cast iron kettle bricked up under a shelter. Made some lye soap as well.

Some thug broke all the bricks and stole our pot. I expect that pot was 48" across the rim.

We use the slow cooker. Tried water and ended up getting some in a few jars and it went rancid. Been happily going without water since.

Good to know.

I'm going to try letting it cook longer , in hopes that the water steams off.

Did twenty pounds last week. Set a large roaster to about 200 degrees and let melt melt. No water added. Process took about 10 hours. I do this in the garage to keep the smell out of the house.

If it is ground fine it renders down better from what I have seen. We do tallow, but it is the same process. We do a slow cooker full at a time. As it renders down we add more ground tallow. My wife strains it through a coffee filter. She just stops before she gets to the juices and chunks. When they set up they go to the chickens. We use tallow to cook everything now. We don't use any seed oil of any kind.

Exactly why I want to render my own tallow and lard.
You can buy lard and tallow at the stores, but it has additives in it.

I grind it through an .125 screen so it’s fine and cook it in electric roaster without water in the shop so the mess is out there not in the house, then take the cracklins and fry them in butter good and crispy for a good taste.

I get free tallow from my butcher buddy. He grinds it and sacks it up and freezes it. I don't know what a sack weighs, but it will not always fit in the slow cooker. But the chickens like any left overs. I would guess we go through 75-100 pounds a year. After it is jarred we put it in the freezer until we need a jar. When we get a jar out to use it sits on the counter until gone.

I use just a little bit of water at the start to prevent scorching the solid fat. Once it is liquid I just stir it a lot. Heat it to over the boiling point to get rid of the water. Water will make it go rancid quickly.

The cracklins are also good for cookies, bread, and added to scrambled eggs.

Years ago , I used to buy cracklings at a local meat locker butcher shop for 10 cents a pound.
Was a good fox bait.

I ain't feeding a $10 fox something I can eat !

We always used a large cast iron pot (20 gal.) to render hog lard. A good cast iron bean pot or Duch Oven will work the same. Cut pork fat into 3/4" cubes and put in pot with a little oil to get it started. Cook on low heat so as not to scorch until the cracklings are done with most of the oil cooked out. For the rest use an old pillowcase or other cloth bag and put the cooked cracklings in it and use a set of clamps to squeeze the rest of the oil out of the cracklings. The cracklings are best eaten HOT right after you put them in a pan. Chop some fine for your next batch of cornbread. Some fine eating!

We render the lard off of 6 hogs every year. Between the back fat and leaf, I usually only put up about 6-7 gallons. I don’t strain mine at all other than a colander. I put them into half gallon jars that are fresh out of the dishwasher. Put a seal/ring on and it seals as it cools. Just store the jars in the basement. Found a jar dated 2018 the other day. Still good and not strong or rancid at all. We use either a fish fryer or black kettle. I will but in a quart of water and a handful of salt when I first start. The water quickly evaporates out.

I think I followed the recipe wrong or got a couple mixed up.
I put water in with the fat, and learned not to do so.
So now I'm cooking until all the water is out.
Next batch is going through a meat grinder and no water added.
Going to do tallow in a couple days, any suggestions on doing anything different?

Well day two, boiling off the water.
Starting to look like it should.
Fished out some floating fat, and seasoning a cast iron skillet with it in the oven.
Got it for $ 10.00 so needed seasoning to see if it's anything worth while.
Got beef leaf fat , going to pick it up Thursday or Friday , per their call.
At least I have a better idea of how now.
I'm kind of like the outlaw Savell, just got to do it my way.

Still at it, going to get all H2O out of
Seasoning a cast iron skillet I found for $10.00 , light rust, while rendering, using some big scrap in the skillet.

Looking good on both projects. Might do some bacon, eggs hashbrowns soon.
Just to see if the skillet is a keeper.