Rendering Venison Fat

[mommycarlson]

I read a thread about rendering fat and printed out the instructions given by lionprincess, I do believe this thread was a few years old, and before I dive in and start to render some venison fat that DH has had in the freezer since last season, I thought I'd see if anyone has any more advice/tips they can give me. I have rendered bacon fat twice and loved how it has turned out and I've even used it in soap with great results. If anyone has any advice for me please chime in, thank you all so much!

 

[Kittish]

No advice here, but encouragement! Would love to hear how it goes for you.

 

[CTAnton]

That's the process I followed MommyCarlson. The final results were well worth it. Some pots I used bubbled up and spilled over to make a mess...as I recall that was 1 pot that was a thin, smaller gauge than the others...good luck with your rendering!

 

[mommycarlson]

Thank you Kittish! I will most definitely post how it goes for me.

CTAnton, I had the same issue with my last rendering of bacon fat, constant bubbling and spilling over, I had no idea why. Can I use non stick cookware?

 

[mommycarlson]

Revisting the venison fat render! It is in the pot currently for it's 6th rendering. I cannot believe how nice this fat is. I have followed Lionprincess' directions and am doing the 6th render because the water left in the bottom of the containers is not clear. It was a pretty big batch of fat, DH brought it out and thawed it before I had a chance to weigh it but it has to be 8 pounds or so. There is still a very faint smell to it, but it has cleared up so nicely, we are very impressed and have a list of friends who are so excited to try this soap. So just wondering, do I keep rendering until the water is crystal clear? I appreciate the input, it'll be soap soon hopefully!

 

[BattleGnome]

Nice. What SAP value are you going to use? I might have some tallow coming to me but haven’t looked into recipes yet. (It’s probably on soapcalc but I haven’t. Gotten there yet)

 

[CTAnton]

I wonder if you are using enough water in your pot. When I did mine 4 cleanings was enough and yes, the water was clear. I ended up with an inch or more disk of rendered fat and close to a gallon and a half of water in the pot.
Soapee and SoapCalc both list deer tallow....

 

[DeeAnna]

If I render with water, I render once, maybe twice, and use odor as my main guide for when to stop. I don't go for utterly zero odor -- every fat has a characteristic smell and I'm okay with that -- but I'm not wanting any "off" odor either. I question whether it's a good idea for fat to be repeatedly heated with water.

But this is all a personal choice; I know others are far more particular than I. You are the best judge of what's necessary for your situation, so do what you think is best for you.

Look at this as a learning experience -- if you continue to render 7+ and the water doesn't entirely become clear and the odor doesn't entirely disappear, then you will learn there is a point at which rendering more is not useful.

 

[mommycarlson]

BattleGnome, I haven't even thought of that, I figured actually that I would just choose venison tallow in SoapCalc and do my normal settings and just see what happens. I will be adding fragrance but no color, I want to see what it looks like "naked"

CTAnton, I actually thought of that, and on the 5th render added more water, and on my 6th render this morning I added much more than usual. I believe this will be my final render. I can barely detect an odor.

DeeAnna, I could still smell "meat" after the 5th render so I decided to do one more. In Lionprincess's directions, she says that the water is clear at the end of her rendering. My water was still cloudy this morning but I agree, I don't think I should keep cooking and cooking this fat. And yes, this is a learning experience for sure, I'm excited to try this fat. I made soap with bacon fat that I rendered myself and it was such a lovely soap that I am hopeful about the deer tallow.

I really appreciate everyone's input, I'll report on how the soap goes! Thank you!

ETA: I see people will quote several people in one post, how do you do that?

 

[DeeAnna]

You click on the icon in the middle -- the smaller square one with the " symbol -- for all the messages you want to quote except for the very last message. For the last message, you click on the bigger "Quote" button. HTH!

 

[mommycarlson]

Here is the final product, 7.3 pounds of beautiful white venison fat! Virtually odorless. The water was just a tad amber but not cloudy at all so I believe I am done.

So, now that it's ready, are there any tallow soapers out there that would care to weigh in with a good starting recipe? Or should I just replace my 50% lard recipe with the deer tallow? (running through SoapCalc of course) That was my plan anyway, unless anyone has a better idea?

You click on the icon in the middle -- the smaller square one with the " symbol -- for all the messages you want to quote except for the very last message. For the last message, you click on the bigger "Quote" button. HTH!

And thank you DeeAnna, I had seen that little icon and actually clicked on it once but I didn't figure it out, I'll give it a try again!