Of the long and ever-growing list of foods, food ingredients, and food additives you never thought would return to the marketplace or earn a second look from consumers—think: diet soft drinks sweetened with saccharine and unpasteurized dairy products—one item in particular seemed like the least likely candidate for reputation rehabilitation: lard. Lard, the rendered pork fat that was once a staple in millions of U.S. kitchens and pantries, is one of those rare comestibles whose mere mention is enough to trigger scrunched-up noses, sour expressions, and mock gag reflexes. That’s largely because, after years of reading about the danger of saturated animal fats, many of us have developed a ...