Well, Christmas has come early for my fellow tallow lovers - I was going through my Picasa collection looking for some Christmas card pix and I came across some tallow-rendering photos I took last winter - I think I had ambitions of a photo essay but then I got sidetracked. So without further ado, here's how to get yourself the best soap making fat ever, the old-fashioned way.
Photo #1:
Find yourself a good butcher. The problem with the lack of neighborhood butchers these days is that beef fat isn't even around. In the case of supermarkets, most of the meat is packaged far away and shipped, they don't have that many butchers on site anymore. Luckily I was able to find a Halal butcher in Paterson, NJ, a nearby town which has a large Middle Eastern population. They don't speak English too well, but I showed them a photo of tallow and they pretty much understood. One trip to their store gives me enough tallow for the whole year. They didn't even want to take any money for it the first time, but I insisted on giving them something for their efforts. Now I bring them soap I make with their tallow and we kind of have an informal barter going. One essential part is that they're willing to run the tallow through the meat grinder, which makes it MUCH easier to melt (you can see it looks like white hamburger meat with chunks of actual beef). Tallow is the fat that surrounds the kidney, technically. I don't know what they give me but it works great.
Photo #2:
Fill a large stockpot about 2/3 of the way with the ground tallow and add enough water to cover. I also add small amounts of baking soda and white vinegar to help whiten the tallow and get rid of the "beefy" smell. The key is to add these things BEFORE you start heating the water / fat, if you add them later it will volcano on you and you will have a mess. Turn the head on mid-medium high and wait for the magic to happen.
Photo #3:
The fat will completely melt and mix with the water. The little bits of beef that were in the mixture will cook and turn the color of cooked hamburger. Before I did this people described the rendering process as really gross and smelly, but if you like the smell of a roast in the oven, you will like the rendering process as it smells the same. It is messy, however, because of all the grease and fat. But the finished product is well worth it. I always do this in the winter, for reasons that will become clear in the next step.
Photo #4:
Anyone who has made chicken broth from scratch knows exactly what is going on here. When the tallow has completely melted, pour the hot liquid (be very careful) through a strainer to strain out the cooked beef and other impurities. At this point the fat will be mixed with the water and they will need to separate. You can see that I use a really large plastic container for this.
Photo #5:
I live in a condo and I pour the mixture out on my deck, in the winter. The cold weather will help the fat to separate from the water. Leave it in the elements for several hours, or ideally, overnight.
Post #2 has all the rest...can only post 5 photos here...
Jim
Photo #1:
Find yourself a good butcher. The problem with the lack of neighborhood butchers these days is that beef fat isn't even around. In the case of supermarkets, most of the meat is packaged far away and shipped, they don't have that many butchers on site anymore. Luckily I was able to find a Halal butcher in Paterson, NJ, a nearby town which has a large Middle Eastern population. They don't speak English too well, but I showed them a photo of tallow and they pretty much understood. One trip to their store gives me enough tallow for the whole year. They didn't even want to take any money for it the first time, but I insisted on giving them something for their efforts. Now I bring them soap I make with their tallow and we kind of have an informal barter going. One essential part is that they're willing to run the tallow through the meat grinder, which makes it MUCH easier to melt (you can see it looks like white hamburger meat with chunks of actual beef). Tallow is the fat that surrounds the kidney, technically. I don't know what they give me but it works great.
Photo #2:
Fill a large stockpot about 2/3 of the way with the ground tallow and add enough water to cover. I also add small amounts of baking soda and white vinegar to help whiten the tallow and get rid of the "beefy" smell. The key is to add these things BEFORE you start heating the water / fat, if you add them later it will volcano on you and you will have a mess. Turn the head on mid-medium high and wait for the magic to happen.
Photo #3:
The fat will completely melt and mix with the water. The little bits of beef that were in the mixture will cook and turn the color of cooked hamburger. Before I did this people described the rendering process as really gross and smelly, but if you like the smell of a roast in the oven, you will like the rendering process as it smells the same. It is messy, however, because of all the grease and fat. But the finished product is well worth it. I always do this in the winter, for reasons that will become clear in the next step.
Photo #4:
Anyone who has made chicken broth from scratch knows exactly what is going on here. When the tallow has completely melted, pour the hot liquid (be very careful) through a strainer to strain out the cooked beef and other impurities. At this point the fat will be mixed with the water and they will need to separate. You can see that I use a really large plastic container for this.
Photo #5:
I live in a condo and I pour the mixture out on my deck, in the winter. The cold weather will help the fat to separate from the water. Leave it in the elements for several hours, or ideally, overnight.
Post #2 has all the rest...can only post 5 photos here...
Jim
