Rendering tallow - does it smell bad

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Sonya-m

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Called my local butcher to ask what they do with their beef fat - they throw it out! They said I can pop in anytime to take what they have at no charge!

So I have 2lb chopped up ready to render in my crock pot

Is this going to make my whole house stink??
 
Well, many will tell you to cook it slowly and it smells like cooking meat. Then strain and your done.

My method takes much longer and is more time consuming, but in the end I have a perfectly cleaned product without one iota of anything left behind beyond pure 100% clean tallow.
My method reeks. Bad.
So it depends on how you do it, I suppose.
 
It's not a HORRIBLE smell, it's just strong and kind of yucky. And since the rendering takes a while, the smell doesn't seem so bad at first but by the time you are done you are heartily sick of it.

If you can, get your suet ground. The small bits will render MUCH faster!
 
Well, many will tell you to cook it slowly and it smells like cooking meat. Then strain and your done.

My method takes much longer and is more time consuming, but in the end I have a perfectly cleaned product without one iota of anything left behind beyond pure 100% clean tallow.
My method reeks. Bad.
So it depends on how you do it, I suppose.

Can you share your method? I render tallow often, and would love to hear!
 
Smell is so subjective, everyone is different. If you are a vegetarian you will probably think it reeks. If you regularly cook meat the smell probably won't bother you, I don't even notice it.
 
Low and slow, like cooking good BBQ. I put it in a stainless stock pot with the lid on and render on 170F in the oven. Take it out periodically , squish with a potato masher, and strain the liquid through a paper towel lined colander. Lovely stuff.
Carol in SC
 
I do NOT slow cook fat alone and strain, then use for soap. If you see at the end of my post the picture, the nasty brown water is what I strain out of my first render. I render 4-5 times until my water is crystal clear. If you render fat on a low heat without water, strain, then many of these impurities remain behind. I want super clean tallow for soap I put all over my body, and would not ever recommend doing it any other way.

Edit in a second to copy and paste my old post off here!

I take it and cut off all meat bits I can. Then I cut it into small inch sized pieces or so. Someone here mentioned baking soda to help the render smell, and another mentioned salt for helping get impurities out.
So.

I put it into a pot of water that's filled halfway up the fat. I pour a good half cup or so of salt into it. I mix oh about 3 tablespoons of baking soda into water and pour it on as well. It creates a reaction and releases carbon dioxide, so beware as it heats of spilling over. I did an experiment not using baking soda in the render, and by the third it still smelled extremely meaty. Whatever the reason, it helps a ton reduce the overall finished product's odor. BEWARE OF EVAPORATION, and fill with fresh water as needed.

I heat it on medium low for a good half hour, and then lower the temperature to full low. I simmer for, oh, 4 hours or more, until the fat looks like a gelatinous gooey sinus infection lol. I strain it through a sieve into a glass Pyrex baking dish, used cheesecloth in the sieve once but can't find it anywhere after I ran out, so sieve it is.

I refrigerate it for at least 4 hours or so. It needs to cool completely through. Overnight is best.

Look at the liquid now. Below the fat in the dish after its cooled, the water is a deep muddy brown and STINKS like what I would *think* a dead body smells like. I almost gag at this point when I go and dump it in the field for the coyotes to sniff out haha.
Once I didn't do this, and I'm assuming I used cleaner pieces of fat and cut most trimming off compared to other times, so you may or may not get this.

It looks like it's pretty clean fat now, but there's more cleaning that can occur, and I want it very very clean to prevent smell, dos development, and just the yuck factor of bits being left behind. That water was so nasty, and if it was that bad there's more cleaning throughout the fat that needs to happen.

Scrape any funk off the base of the fat disc and discard.

Pop out the solid fat disc and place in the pot. Fill with water to cover an inch below the fat, or so. This isn't an exact science, so close is fine.. Add about a quarter cup of salt and another few tbs of baking soda. Heat on low, and melt it. I keep it here for a couple hours or so. I strain it out into the cleaned out Pyrex. Cool for at least 4 hours. It just needs adequate time to harden completely through. If you pop it out too quickly, the bottom of the disc will still be water logged. The water beneath the fat disc this second render is a murky slightly tinted white. Very murky.
Scrape the base of yucks again.

I do it again. This time I use about between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of salt. Honestly I dump and eyeball it, but for instructions sake, start with these and make it your own. The water after cooling is a cloudy white, but getting cleaner looking.
Scrape discolored base.
I do it the fourth time. The water is almost clear after this render and cooling. This is how I know most of the impurities are gone. I DON'T use salt this final render nor baking soda. The salt may be what clouds the left over water in the above rendering, but I know it still needs the extra rendering based on the smell too. The smell is nonexistent practically by the fourth render and cooling. The water left beneath the disc doesn't smell either by the fourth time. Is four necessary, probably not. I just want a clean clean product if I'm going to do it myself and not purchase it.
Now is it necessary on bigger batches, yes and so is a fifth. If you're doing a lot at once, it may need 5 renders.
If you split your 5 lbs into 2.5 renders each, 4 is good. If you do all at once, use a big enough pot for the bubbles of salt and baking soda reacting, and plan on 5 renders, and potentially 6 depending on how little the odor remains.


So, my final render is clear water and smell free even after a remelt of my tallow I rendered. So I do this method.

OK. The pics are my FIRST render. My second isn't great looking, and my third is cloudy and still stinky.

IMAG2351.jpg
 
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lionprincess - your method of rendering is no doubt meticulous . . . if your swap soap is any indication ;)

I've never rendered my own so can't comment on the methods. But definitely have used different types of lard and some smelled more 'piggy' than others. Haven't really noticed as much of an animal smell with beef tallow though.
 
lionprincess - your method of rendering is no doubt meticulous . . . if your swap soap is any indication ;)

I've never rendered my own so can't comment on the methods. But definitely have used different types of lard and some smelled more 'piggy' than others. Haven't really noticed as much of an animal smell with beef tallow though.
I followed the method posted by Lionprincess and it is meticulous. My rendered tallow had not even a hint of smell when I was done, following her instructions to the T. Thankyou Lionprincess
 
Thank you both. I could probably do a proofread of the post I made, because I think I rushed it (and can't there always be an edit of sorts??)...but you get the gist of it.

Thanks you all :)
I'm glad it worked for you Carolyn!
 
I followed the method posted by Lionprincess and it is meticulous. My rendered tallow had not even a hint of smell when I was done, following her instructions to the T. Thankyou Lionprincess

If I ever get my hands on a large quantity of beef fat I will follow this method to a 'T'. It seems to be well worth the extra effort. Thanks lionprincess for the specifics especially salt ratios and such.
 
I will definitely try your method next time lionprincess. Right now it's been on low in my crock pot overnight but still has quite large pieces - I guess cutting smaller next time will help.

I guess I could render a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time using your method? I've just used the dry method on this first run
 
Yes. If you strain it and have several bits of fat left over, then you can do my method to those leftovers while you cool the rendered liquid fat you already made.
**if there's cooked little tiny crunchies, you may consider a strainer and cheesecloth.

Then take what you rendered, and take any more you rendered (if you decided to do that), and do the water method. Once you do, the water won't probably be as dark, but it should be icky some. You can definitely pick up after this render and clean with the water method.

Edit to say, depending on how much you have, it may only need 3. The bigger your batch, the more renders. I've also had quite a clean batch compared to another that was awful. So that is taken into consideration on how much cleaning you do.
 
Wow, GREAT instructions, I will follow them as exactly as I can. Dang, I wish I hadn't donated my antique meat grinder to charity, ack.

I don't grind and it takes longer.It doesn't fully dissolve curbing it either, but cubing it still works. I'm glad you liked the instructions! Any questions feel free to ask. Be sure to quote me because I tend to forget when I did or didn't comment.Terrible I know!
 
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