Aunt Ruth’s Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 350° or less.  I use 325°

3 cups sugar
2 cups lard
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg pinch of salt
7 cups flour, divided

1. Cream sugar and lard together. 
2. Add eggs and buttermilk to sugar mixture. 
3. Add baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and 6 cups flour—one cup at a time.  All this can be done with a mixer. The last cup of flour needs to added by hand. You need enough flour to be able to roll the dough out.  
4. Roll to ¼ inch thick. 
5. Cut the dough in the shape of your choice with a large cookie cutter. For Christmas, I use a simple, large Wilton Christmas tree cutter.  
6. Place on cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart to bake. 
7. DO NOT grease cookie sheets.  
8. Put colored (green for trees) granulated sugar on each cookie.  
9. Bake in 325° oven for 8-10 minutes until bottoms are very lightly browned but tops are still white. 
10. Remove to racks to cool. 

No decorating needed. This recipe makes very large bakery-type, soft sugar cookies. Enjoy.