# Reducing Smell in Rendered Tallow



## BakingNana (Oct 6, 2009)

Question for anyone who regularly renders tallow.  I have remelted the tallow I rendered and strained it through 4 thicknesses of cheesecloth, and rechilled it.  It was pure white with no apparent foreign particles, but still smelled pretty strongly of beef.  I remelted it a second time and strained again, but it still smells pretty beefy.  Is there something I can do to deodorize it some?  I know I can't get all the beef smell out, but I would like to reduce it a little.  Any suggestions?  I have an absolutely free source for beef fat, so I'd really like to take advantage of it.

Also, is there a percentage of oils I can keep the tallow at or under to help ensure the lowest beefy smell possible and still get the hardening benefits?


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## artisan soaps (Oct 6, 2009)

..


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## Vintageliving (Oct 6, 2009)

I'll try the potato.  I thought the stones or gravel were for something else???

I made some soap out of bacon drippings, and it still smells a little bacon-y, even with the essential oils.  Oh well, it'll probably make good insect repellent soap.


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## Vintageliving (Oct 6, 2009)

delete, duplicate


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## IrishLass (Oct 6, 2009)

You can also do a final wet rendering with baking soda. I haven't done it myself, but a soaper on a different forum has done it with her stinky lard with very good results. I wrote her method down in my notes for future reference just in case- 

To deodorize 5 lbs of lard or tallow:

Take 5 lbs. lard (or tallow) and put in in a big pot. Pour in enough water to just cover the lard. Pour in 2 to 3 tablespoons of baking soda, making sure to dissolve the soda in the water before heating the pot or you'll have a mess on your hands. Bring to the boil and then turn it down to a low simmer, cooking and stirring it it for about 30 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it sit in the fridge or some place cool overnight. When completely cooled, remove the solidified lard and throw everything else out. Store the lard in the fridge. 

IrishLass


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## Cuckoo Bananas (Oct 6, 2009)

Huh...so thats what the potatoes are for? I saw that in some of the recipes when I was rendering my tallow and thought Kitten Love so left it out. My tallow did smell a little still in its tallow form but after making it into soap it doesnt smell so much anymore. I can smell it 'just' but maybe thats because the rendered tallow smell is one I shall never forget lol but when i've told other people what it is and that you can smell it just they say they cant.


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## Sunkawakan (Oct 6, 2009)

wont the potatoes cook and get mushy and you won't be able to strain the potatoes out from the tallow?

I do mine outside because I can't stand the smell of meat of any kind and I sure don't want my house smelling that way.  I almost quit making tallow soap because of it and now make the soap on the back deck and have to store it in the storage shed.  People love it though, weird.  However, I've never tried the baking soda method - I'll give it a shot next time I make a batch.  Thanks for the suggestion.


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## jennikate (Oct 6, 2009)

Thanks for this I have some Drippings I'm gonna try the baking soda with.


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## donniej (Oct 6, 2009)

I've read that putting in the vinegar that you render the tallow in will dramatically reduce the smell.

I suspect baking soda will work as well.


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## ewepootoo (Oct 6, 2009)

This is taking a step sideways from rendering fat, I have been using Solidified Cooking Oil from the supermarket in place of Tallow and using Soapcalc I am superfatting for the Tallow that uses the least Lye. Not sure whether it was Beef, Deer or Sheep but I am getting really hard nice to use soap but it still has a smell I dont like even with 3% Lavender fragrance oil from Bigtree. The Tallow from the supermarket is pure white with virtually no smell and is around $4 a kg so its good and cheap but I need to overide this smell, any ideas? I like the smell of Ylang Ylang but I read on one of the soap supply mobs that it is not to good in CP. Steve


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## BakingNana (Oct 6, 2009)

Hmmmm...interesting.  I live in a pretty good sized city in the U.S. and there is no grocery here that carries tallow.   :roll:  Frustrating. Lard, yes; tallow, no.  I see there is deoderized tallow online, but I hate to buy what I can get free.  I'll try the baking soda and see what happens.  Artisan-I did try a search on this topic, but so much comes up for tallow that I just didn't have the time to go through it all.  Now I can search on potato and cut down on the list!  Thanks everyone, for the suggestions!


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## ewepootoo (Oct 6, 2009)

I read somewhere that Superfry is tallow which sits in the fridge next to the lard. Frymaster is also something useful but I cant remember what it is, just look at the ingredients next time you are at the supermarket. Steve


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## BakingNana (Oct 6, 2009)

Yep. our stores don't carry either one.  Apparently the word "fry" is taboo around here.  You should have seen the face on the clerk when I asked where the lard was!  She said in horror "Oh, we would NEVER carry that!  That isn't good for you!"  I said, relax, I don't want to eat it, I'm making soap.  Got a pretty blank stare in return.


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## ewepootoo (Oct 6, 2009)

Yeah, you should see the look on the face of the Checkout Chick when all I have in my basket is 10 block's of Tallow.  Steve


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## BakingNana (Oct 7, 2009)




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## CookieChan (Oct 7, 2009)

I ordered some tallow from the butcher. How do I know if I need to render it? I'm probably going to freeze some of it, do I render before or just freeze it and render later?


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## BakingNana (Oct 7, 2009)

Tallow is the solid white fat rendered (cooked out of) scraps of fat.  Ideally, it is suet, the fat around the kidneys.  But suet can be costly and butchers don't like to give it away.  Fat trimmings from butchering or preparing meat for sale are what I use.  I get them free from a local grocery store because they would otherwise just throw them away.  So, if you get hunks or scraps of fat, you will need to render them into tallow.  If you get a hard, white, solid hunk of fat, that's tallow that has been rendered.  I will not pay for tallow or beef fat, since it's easy to render and free for me!  I understand that you can buy deodorized beef tallow on line, but again, expensive.  Normally, tallow will have a slight beefy smell.  Easy instructions for rendering can be found on the net.  Hope this helps!


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## BakingNana (Oct 7, 2009)

Oh, and the second part of your question....I do both.  If I get fat from the grocery and don't have time to render it, I'll freeze it until I do.  And I freeze the rendered tallow.  If it's well sealed (I use a Food Saver vacuum sealer, but a freezer zip-type bag would work) it should keep a year.  I can render 6 pounds of fat at a time in my 12-qt. stock pot.  Gotta love free stuff!!   :wink:


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## Gmkirby (Dec 28, 2022)

BakingNana said:


> Question for anyone who regularly renders tallow.  I have remelted the tallow I rendered and strained it through 4 thicknesses of cheesecloth, and rechilled it.  It was pure white with no apparent foreign particles, but still smelled pretty strongly of beef.  I remelted it a second time and strained again, but it still smells pretty beefy.  Is there something I can do to deodorize it some?  I know I can't get all the beef smell out, but I would like to reduce it a little.  Any suggestions?  I have an absolutely free source for beef fat, so I'd really like to take advantage of it.
> 
> Also, is there a percentage of oils I can keep the tallow at or under to help ensure the lowest beefy smell possible and still get the hardening benefits?


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## Blue1969 (Dec 28, 2022)

I have found that cooking it 3 times, with water and salr reduces the smell. Not totally, but definately a lot.


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