dave said:
I love to connect closely to the food I prepare and I take great pride in good results, especially when it comes from things I have grown myself, and rendering fat into tallow (or lard) is a special event for me that I relish. I'm looking forward to trying this other method next slaughter.

I hear that! The problem we have, though, is when we have to buy an ingredient from the grocery store - it is never as good. We failed to put up tomatoes this year and, earlier this week, one of my sons discovered what store-bought tomato paste was all about for the first time in 24 years. It is definitely not the slow roasted paste that he is used to grabbing from the freezer when he visits. He was really put off by the "stuff" in the can. Up to then, I did not realize how accustomed we have become to quality, home processed food - and what a vast difference it makes.

Could you please post your results when you wet-render? I believe that my attempt at lard failed miserably in part due to the pig's diet (too many scraps and not finished off properly??) as the odor was certainly not pleasant - and the couple slabs of meat from this animal had the same "trashy" smell as well as soft, almost greasy fat. It was a great lesson for me as I will be sure to finish off my own pigs correctly after the big move.

Asa side note, I have read several articles this week pertaining to the health benefits of using lard and tallow as part of one's diet as opposed to the "good" oils - canola and olive. I was quite surprised to learn that the thinking has gone 180 degrees in this department and that tallow and lard are now considered the healthy alternatives to the vege/grain based oils by many. I want to do more research in this area but, for now, I am enjoying having tallow to use although it is not nearly as nice as yours. Where yours appears perfectly clear, the clarity of mine is a tad hazy but it smells wonderful nonetheless.

Have you rendered down anyone else? We will be butchering a lamb in the next month or so and I am wondering if anyone has experience with sheep tallow....

homeshow said:When I wet render lard from 1 of our pigs. I get 1 of 2 results.
1. I put the scraps thru a meat grinder. I get the most from this batch but not as firm and pure white.
2. I put the scraps directly into the hot water. White firm lard every time.


Something about not shredding the fat?

Hmmm, I wonder if that caused the bit of haze that I could not clear from this last batch of tallow? I will try cutting into cubes next time.

I'll definitely post my results when I try wet rendering. I have several gallon bags of frozen fat left over that I have yet to render so it may be sooner rather than later.

A couple years ago we harvested a deer on our property and she had quite a bit of fat on her, and I rendered that down into venison tallow which was really fun. But I didn't know what to do with it so I just put it into the freezer and there it remains to this day.

Old gardener I think I know exactly what your pig problem was. Your pigs got long noses and scraggly hairs as well. The protein level of the feed must be age/size appropriate to the pigs. Too little protein and there are some physical changes to the hog and the meat. My father in law and his dad raised hogs every year. Pigs start at 20% as piglets and you lower the protein levels as they get older. One of our pigs is on 12% and about 300 lb right now.

Thanks! I will be sure to watch the protein when I start raising them. I didn't raise the pig I rendered - I was given a side of it. Would protein level cause the stench? The meat didn't smell like typical, fresh pork and I know that it was processed correctly (it was done at the same time I was having a calf slaughtered).

I thought that perhaps it hadn't been finished properly? I think I recall that swine can get soft fat if they are feeding on acorns, etc too close to slaughter but it has been a lot of years so I may not be remembering correctly. What stands out in memory though is the smell - this particular beast was just downright rank. Given that it was a gilt, I know it wasn't boar taint... But after this experience, I'll definitely watch the protein levels - thank you for the warning!

Off topic - are you raising Duroc or ??? Do you have a preference for a particular breed or mix?

When we raised hogs, I always said the best meat came from a gilt that had 1 litter that didn't breed back. Long, lean, but for you lard affectionados, not much of that. Sometimes didn't get much more than 10 pounds. But was that ever good meat. Nice size chops with not much trim, nice big hams.............only part I miss of not having hogs anymore.

Oh Dave - what have you started? Today, I am rendering duck fat. The tallow went over extremely well so I am branching out.

Wow- you'll have to let us know what you do with it!

I switched from lard to tallow for my soaps. (Not all of my soaps have animal fats in them, BTW. Some people want an all veggie soap, and I also prefer all veggie for the ones I use for facial soaps. So, about half and half of all of my varieties, I would guess). I still prefer lard for use in greasing pans because it is so much softer. Tallow works, but is harder to work with. We also made a tallow candle for fun (otherwise, we make our own soy candles). It did smell a bit like beef when burned, but not enough to bother me. This is coming from me, who complains all day when Dave renders fats!

I've started (slowly) getting into the habit of doing all of my sauteing with chicken fat now that I don't currently have butter. When I make my chicken stock (or turkey like this week), I allow some of the broth to cool in the fridge overnight and skim off the fat in the morning. This is wonderful, and really healthy. I say slowly because old habits die way too hard- I'm so used to grabbing the extra virgin olive oil when out of butter. It is an expensive habit, and one I need to break since I have this wonderful fat right here!

Whew- that was a lot of words to say that I'm always looking for new ways to use the resources we have

So far, I have just cooked with it - roasted duck with potatoes slow roasted in duck fat. Thankfully, dinner went over well.

I am like you, Trish. I've always used butter and olive oil in the past but am trying to transition. I think I must be deficient in one of the fatty acids that duck fat provides as I discovered that I almost "crave" it. I have never been able to digest most fats particularly well but the duck fat, in particular, seems to have really agreed with me.

I used to make goats' milk soap but beyond that, I have had no experience with soap making. I am curious - do you find soaps made with olive oil vs animal fats to be different in terms of hardness or ??? Do different animal fats affect the end product, too (does one made with tallow differ in feel or ?? from one made with lard)?

Lard works fine, but I do prefer the tallow. The bubbles are fluffier (but not as long lasting). The biggest difference is the hardness of the bar. Tallow produces a very hard bar. Of course, the more you play with soap making, the more you realize that there are lots of variables. Each oil, and essential oil adds it's own unique elements that can, and usually does, change the final outcome. It's one big science experiment!

I see soap making as a blend of science + art. The artistic part, to me, is what differentiates commercial soap from homemade - and I will choose a homemade bar of soap over store bought any day. I have found homemade soap to be of better quality, more pure (what the heck are all those chemicals that companies add really used for - I know that the preservatives that they add sure haven't helped my face over the decades ), and gentler to my family's skin. I really admire what you do!

The art part is the fun part! I really enjoy creating new soaps! Sometimes just for fun (tried and true recipe with fun new colors, textures, scents), and sometimes for the challenge of experimenting with the healing properties of the herbs and trying to translate that into the soap (like the mint/comfrey).

It's one of my fun, "for me" activities

Besides\, it is more fun than cooking

Well @OldGardener, we slaughtered a steer two weeks ago and I tried the wet rendering method and just made a bad mess! The fat floated in the water and I had a really hard time separating out the "junk" from the fat. I just couldn't get a huge pure product without doing a lot of poking and picking. It just didn't work out for me so I went back to my old method and all is back to normal. I think I'm going to stick with my usual rendering style. It works for me and produces beautiful tallow. Does this mean I'm set in my ways?

Thank you for sharing your results. It's interesting that so many swear by the "wet" method, I tried it years ago but have been dry rendering lately. Your results tell me I should stay with the "dry" technique.

Were you able to salvage any tallow?

Definitely. I poured out the water and was left behind was all the white tallow with all the chunks of cooked meat embedded. I then melted the whole lot and the chunks were then easily removed. Maybe that's the way others do it but it seems like an extra step.

What I always do is this:

I take a pint of old tallow and I melt it in my stock pot on simmer. Once it's completely melted I start adding in chunks of new fat. Starting off with a bit of tallow is really helpful to get the process started.

Then we start carving our carcasses, taking steaks, removing roasts and stew meat, and cubing meat for the grinder. Any dirty bits, silverskin, nasty bubbly fat, gristle, bloodied areas, gross stuff, etc, just gets thrown into the stock pot. I keep adding and adding fat like this until it's at the very top, and it simmers all day long. At the end of the day I pull off all the junk that is floating and turn off the simmer. In the morning it's cooled but still not hardened, so I simmer it again to bring it back to temp and continue the process.

It takes us several days to completely process a carcass so the pot stays on the stove during the whole time. When we're all finished with the meat we usually have the stock pot at the very very top full of tallow ready to be skimmed, strained and finished.

I am going to have to try your process. I have always started with a dry pan so the start is slow going (constant monitoring and frequent- read near constant - stirring until it finally melts down enough so I can add to the pot without worrying about scorching). Looking at how you do it, I now see that I have been wasting a lot of time. Thank you for explaining your approach. I will definitely be utilizing it the next time I render.

The first time I made tallow it was just like that. But once you get that first batch of tallow it's so much easier priming the pump, so to speak.

I've never rendered beef tallow, but have done a lot of hog fat into lard. I have had good results using the nesco roaster to render the lard. Wonder if that would work for the beef tallow?

If it works for lard it would work fine to tallow. The latter has only a very slightly higher melting point.

I find my propane stove is perfect on its lowest setting. But I often wonder how much propane I'm using. I usually run the fire for perhaps 25 hours to produce about 3 gallons of tallow.