Time to make tallow

[Drchurchillsoaps]

I will be rendering and making my own tallow today. Found a local butcher that gave me a cut I wanted for cheap!

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

If you are using a crockpot or instant pot you might want to do it outside if you can. My husband doesn't like the smell in the house.

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

Finally done with scraping the bowls ans filtering 3 times. Twice in cheesecloth then once in my vacuum assisted filter.

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

Ugly shot of the vacuum filter before I clean. Took forever to render, cool and filter multiple times but I have a product with virtually no smell and a nice ivory color.

 

[kagey]

I like your tallow color. Nice job.

what ratio of tallow do you get with your beef fat?
from 5lbs of fat, I find myself trimming 1.15 lb of meat - and getting less than 32oz of tallow.
is that normal?

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

I had no meat. Some blood on the cut but no meat. I didn’t have to trim anything. I placed in a large pot, added salt+water, and simmered until the fat rendered down. Next run it through a fine mesh metal screen, then cheesecloth, freezer, remove and drain. Then melt and filter again through a couple layers of cheesecloth, I added salt and water so the salt would pull out some of the smell and impurities. I added more salt and water both times I cooled. Last heat I ran through an vacuum filter and the picture is right after pulling out of freezer. Still has a slight smell but better than store bought! I get it out of Amish country here in Ohio

 

[kagey]

thanks for reply - I use the same method using a crockpot.

I was curious if you ever weighed your fat prior to cooking and tallow to see how much tallow you get per pound of fat. while I didn't expect a 1:1 ratio. I was surprised how much unuseable fat remained.
wondered how much fat you expected from that bag in your picture.

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

I asked him for 10 pounds. I don’t remember exact weight but I remember him saying “eh 11 close enough”. I wish I would have weighed now for exact weight. But I just put the finished product on the scale. It is dry now and weighs 9 pounds 11 1/4 oz. I don’t remember throwing much away besides greyish remains in the cheesecloth. No meat or bone.

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

Got a weight this time.

I like your tallow color. Nice job.

what ratio of tallow do you get with your beef fat?
from 5lbs of fat, I find myself trimming 1.15 lb of meat - and getting less than 32oz of tallow.
is that normal?

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

Got a weight this time.

I will get a finished weight this time and have the total loss for you. I really don’t get much meat tho.

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

7.83 pounds of finished product
Total loss 2.74 pounds.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Rather than “loss”, isn't it removed non-fat tissue, aka “byproduct”? I'd guess you real losses (i. e. actual tallow lost to the waste bin) is a lot lower than 20%.

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

Just a loss of total weight based on purchase weight. It wasn’t specifically non fat tissue I’m sure there was some wasted tallow as well. But I would definitely say most of weight loss is byproduct.

 

[kagey]

interesting that you get "beef suet." -- I just ask my butcher for any beef fat trimmings. Must be the reason why my "fat" isn't as productive as yours.

Thanks for update. Good info!

 

[lorinda]

Hello, I also just rendered my own tallow last week and I used the salt and water process three times. The tallow still has a faint beef scent and I am wondering if that is okay. I don't have any bits in the tallow as far as I can tell, it looks creamy and consistent. I filtered it through approx 8 layers of a cotton, fine knit, tea towel that resembles a cheesecloth but with a smaller mesh. Every time I melted it down and put it through the cloth, there was a small amount of tiny, soft, marrow-looking bits in the bottom of the crockpot. I am considering doing it again as each time I've done it, I've seen some left over but I am wondering if you think I need a better filter.

 

[Ladka]

Can't tell you the percentage but what I can tell from my experience is the following:

- When I got minced suet from the butcher the yield was the best (can't get it any more at present).
- Suet gave much better yield than ordinary fat from elsewhere of the animal body.
- Minced fat gave much higher yield than chopped fat.
- When I get non-suet fat I tend to trim it heavily of anything that is red coloured or very hard (non-fat).

I never filter the fat. I let it harden, take it out of (salted) water, scrape any impurities on the bottom surface and proceed it in more salted water. I repeat it until the water is clean and practically no impurities are visible on the bottom surface of hardened tallow. I scrape it anyway and it usually comes off a bit off-white, not the white of the remaining mass. Then I render it dry (without any water added) at a temperature slightly exceeding 100 deg Celsius so that any hidden water evaporates. When there are no more bubbles rising to the surface of melted tallow and I hear no crackling sound the tallow is dry. When it hardens it is hard, white and odourles.

It makes beautiful white (cold processed) soap.

 

[Ugeauxgirl]

Mine still has a very faint odor, but makes odorless soap

 

[Drchurchillsoaps]

I have only tried with my filter. I had it laying around the workshop no longer in use. So I have minimal experience, however, ladka’s unfiltered tallow above looks nice and makes me think of not having to clean said filter.

 

[Ladka]

I have only tried with my filter. I had it laying around the workshop no longer in use. So I have minimal experience, however, lacks’s unfiltered tallow above looks nice and makes me think of not having to clean said filter.

Did you mean Ladka's, not lack's? Ladka is my name.

 

[AliOop]

Did you mean Ladka's, not lack's? Ladka is my name.

I'm guessing that was an auto-correct error, as Ladka isn't recognized by our US-English dictionaries. Sorry!