Out of Pod Experience

'The fat is believed to have escaped from the wreck of a merchant vessel that was bombed in WW II. Scottish Natural Heritage said the lard was still a brilliant white and smelled "good enough to have a fry up with."'
This raises a number of questions:
-So lard can sit around for over 65 years and not spoil? Does that mean bacteria doesn't like pig fat? So can we use it as a preservative? Say, for easily spoiled things like fish, shrimp, mayonnaise, bananas and egg salad. Or as an additive for personal care goods such as tooth paste and face creams.
-Why didn't the sea life eat that pig grease? If it's good enough to go into human pastries and tortillas, why isn't it good enough for for a fish? Or even some invertebrate bottom feeding scavenger?
-If fish indeed don't like it, could it be used as a piranha, barracuda, or even shark repellent?
-Would eating foods with lots of pig fat (bacon, hot dogs, salami, bratwurst, knackwurst, chorizo, boudin, pepperoni, L'il Smokies, bologna, Spam, pork chops, etc.) confer a similar anti-bacterial preservative benefit? Are we overlooking what could be a very beneficial health food?

Hah! Fat chance...... see what I did there... har har har.

Ill go smear myself up with lard tonite so that I may live forever.

Here we go.

Years from now, when people are in stasis to long voyages through space, they will be stored in huge cylinders of bacon grease.


There's much good to be said about that, but would I want to use bacon fat that was near my butt crack?

In order:
Yes.
Bacteria cannot live inside it as there is no oxygen.
Not a preservative, a sealant.
Why would you want it in toothpaste?
Fish eat other fish and plankton. They wouldn't know what to do with it and probably couldn't digest it.
Since the fats obviously do not spread into the water (it would have dissolved if so), how could it be used as a repellant ?
It has no anti-bacterial properties itself. But a mass of it can contain no oxygen for bacteria to grow.
No, despite the yumminess, there are not really any health benefits here.

But I have a question for everybody.

What the HECK happened to our educational system ??????

Coming soon to a school canteen somewhere in Scotland. Chips cooked in WW2 lard.

Take that, Jamie Oliver! Then again, lard is quality stuff. All natural and not loaded with E numbers.

There is very little light that far north during the winter, plus if you open your eyes up there they may freeze and rupture, the Scots other senses have evolved to compensate. They rely primarily on their sense of smell, as many things are so cold to touch that you are unable to let go until frostbite facilitates the easy removal of your fingers.

They navigate by scent trails laid during the summer months, when it doesn't really get dark for 3 months. This can prove tricky when driving a modern car that turns the air recirculation on by itself, effectively blinding the driver and causing accidents. Luckily most Scots are too tight to pay extra for climate control.

So in summary they sniffed the lard as it is the only sense available to them during the winter months.

Disclaimer: the furthest north I've been is Cumbria so the above is just conjecture/bollocks.

Fish and chips is mostly over rated, especially the traditional cod. It looks like fish, it smells faintly of fish, tastes of nothing. Good chips, cooked in beef dripping, are a thing of wonder however.

Uh, but you won't find those bacteria in the water of the North Sea. Also, they cannot penetrate the very medium of the lard.

What I want to know is how exactly this free floating lard was identified as coming from a WWII ship?

P.S.

Second thought was "I thought they knew where Herman Goering was buried"