Tallow-tastic Weekend!

[GreenDragon]

Howdy Ya'll! So, I've been working my way patiently through the 100+ pages of the shaving soap thread. Gotten up to page 49 so far, and have already decided I want to try a batch or two using beef tallow. So I bought 5 lbs from the HEB butcher counter this Saturday to render down. (Got it for $0.88 a pound.)

Most of the instructions I found on the 'net were for using the Crock Pot, so that's what I tried. Cut all the fat up into 1" cubes, added a cup of water, and turned it on Slow as per instructions, checking every 1/2 hour. I put it out on the back porch as most posters complained about the smell.

Well, after 3 hours not much had happened. So, I turned it up to High and let her cook for another 2.5 hours; now we're cookin'! About 2/3 of the fat had rendered out at that point, so I strained the oil out into a quart mason jar, and put the bits back in the pot with a couple of cups of water to render the rest of the fat out and make it float to the top and not burn. After another hour it looked like I had gotten all I could out of the batch, so I strained it again and put the liquid into the fridge to separate and solidify.

Wound up with 2.5 lbs of pure white tallow total at $1.76 / lb. Not bad!

So - has anyone else rendered their own tallow? Because I think that rendering on the stove in a stock pot would be faster. Ideas?

Also, I didn't have any problem with a bad smell. In fact, it smelled awesome - like when I do rib roast for Christmas Dinner. All the animals were sticking to me like glue every time I checked on it LOL! I saved all the scraps and I think I'm going to use them to make some Doggie treats with, because I love my Puppers!!!

 

[CTAnton]

Green Dragon I've rendered farm raised deer tallow for the last 2 years every fall.I did 4 changes of water per batch, salt and baking soda on the first 3 "cooks". The smell was like any other meat cooking in the house, totally tolerable to my nose. i had all 4 burners going on the stove, a few spillovers and quite a few hours spent cleaning up the stove afterwards but, all in all, a worthy endeavor. I can't say it's on my bucket list but my local butcher custom slaughters one pig a year so I'll try my hand at that this fall. Depending on the volume you're looking for and memories of why my stove looked like afterwards, you might want to stick with a crock pot. Contained mess!

 

[GreenDragon]

I think my next batch I'm going to do in the oven like I make stock. We save all meat bones and keep them in the freezer until we have enough to make stock, then we put all the bones and veg in a large stock pot filled with water and put in the oven at 250F overnight. Makes awesome stock and the fat is always floating in a thick clear layer on the surface. No mess, no fuss.

 

[cmzaha]

Green Dragon I've rendered farm raised deer tallow for the last 2 years every fall.I did 4 changes of water per batch, salt and baking soda on the first 3 "cooks". The smell was like any other meat cooking in the house, totally tolerable to my nose. i had all 4 burners going on the stove, a few spillovers and quite a few hours spent cleaning up the stove afterwards but, all in all, a worthy endeavor. I can't say it's on my bucket list but my local butcher custom slaughters one pig a year so I'll try my hand at that this fall. Depending on the volume you're looking for and memories of why my stove looked like afterwards, you might want to stick with a crock pot. Contained mess!

Oh how I want some deer tallow.

 

[HowieRoll]

I have found that if I have the fat ground up first (doing it either myself with a grinder attachment on the KitchenAid or ask if the butcher can do it, which is certainly a lot more ideal) and then render it I have a much higher yield rate. In other words, if I start with 10 lbs I will end up with more usable tallow after all is said and done when it's ground rather than when I used to cube it.

You may also find this thread a good read (I did!), and within this thread is also a link to more specific instructions that lionprincess00 generously shared.

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=53096

Happy rendering!

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Green Dragon I've rendered farm raised deer tallow for the last 2 years every fall.I did 4 changes of water per batch, salt and baking soda on the first 3 "cooks". The smell was like any other meat cooking in the house, totally tolerable to my nose. i had all 4 burners going on the stove, a few spillovers and quite a few hours spent cleaning up the stove afterwards but, all in all, a worthy endeavor. I can't say it's on my bucket list but my local butcher custom slaughters one pig a year so I'll try my hand at that this fall. Depending on the volume you're looking for and memories of why my stove looked like afterwards, you might want to stick with a crock pot. Contained mess!

If you do this a lot, you might want to consider an outdoor burner setup this. I have one that I use for camping and big things that need to be outside. For $100 it was worth it for me.

 

[GreenDragon]

Thank you!

 

[Skatergirl46]

I rendered some a couple of weeks ago and I thought the same thing about the smell. I was hungry the whole time and I wanted beef for dinner. I thnk I like tallow in soap even more than lard.

 

[KristaY]

For those of you who render wild game tallow, do you use only the portion of fat around the kidneys or any portion of the animal? I'd like to try it with one of hubby's successful hunts but not sure what to have him save for me.

 

[CTAnton]

My butcher never sees the leaf suet from around the organs. The deer are gutted before he gets them.

 

[wandasue]

Rendering

I get beef suet from meat processor to render for tallow. I have them grind it, got 3 chunks recently, all ground up, for $10. It renders so fast that way, 200 degree oven. Tallow, canola oil, castor oil, lye and water makes a great basic soap for rebatching in small amounts

 

[GreenDragon]

I get beef suet from meat processor to render for tallow. I have them grind it, got 3 chunks recently, all ground up, for $10. It renders so fast that way, 200 degree oven. Tallow, canola oil, castor oil, lye and water makes a great basic soap for rebatching in small amounts

Is that in F or C?

 

[wandasue]

Rendering

Farhenheit

 

[cnm]

I've rendered my own lamb tallow. I did it at work which is a professional kitchen so the exhaust system sucked out any scent.
I pretty much used all of it (a couple pounds) in a batch and split it with the farmer who gave it to me.

 

[SaltedFig]

A caulked dutch oven might help reduce the smell.