Rendering Tallow

It's a job I tend to put off as long as possible. It's not hard, but it is smelly. I hate the smell of cooking fat. I usually try to do it outside or in the bus but that doesn't always work out. When we butchered our cow, I had to take out a couple big chunks of suet that had been sitting in the freezer waiting for me to get around to rendering it. There just wasn't room for the meat and the fat.

Naturally, the weather was a nasty mess and it was more than I wanted to do to haul two big pots full of fat out to the bus and tend to them. So, I did them in the house. Ugh. It was gross smelling. But I now have quite a bit of rendered tallow suitable for soapmaking all ready to go. So I guess it was worth it? 

To get the most out of the process, I really should have ground the fat but, again, not feeling it. So I just cut it into chunks, crumbled it up and went with it. I never weighed anything, but it was a fair amount.

There it is, cooking away. I put a bit of water in the bottom so the fat doesn't burn or catch fire or anything fun like that.  It also gives the fat a nice place to collect and solidify, on top of the water. Then I cook it for a looooong time at a medium heat, just a good simmer. Have I mentioned it stinks?

Here it is about halfway done.

And here it is done, at least as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't take the damp stench anymore.

I then used a sieve to fish out the bigger chunks as much as possible, then I poured it through the sieve lined with an old milk filter to catch all the little solid bits. I have skipped that step. All those bits will adhere to the bottom of your fat chunk and you can just scrape them off with a knife.

Here's the filtered fat.

I then put the pots out in the truck for the night to cool and solidify, Yes, the cab of my truck serves as a repository for foodstuffs in the winter when there's no room in the fridge. It's cold and dog proof.

Here's looking down into a pot after it's been back inside for an hour or two and I'm getting ready to take it out. I will say, this is a pain. When I'm working with smaller amounts, I pour it into baking pan or something that is lined with wax or parchment paper or something. Then I can pop the fat out, peel off the paper and cut it up. This was just too much fat for that technique.

And here's the finished product. That's a 5 inch thick chunk of fat sitting in my sink.

I cut it into smaller chunks and put them into plastic freezer bags, then popped them in the freezer. Now they are ready to go whenever I next decide to make soap.