Rendering Suet

[love4soaping]

Is it better to render beef tallow/suet with or without water in the crockpot? Thank you

 

[love4soaping]

Oh, and I know a lot of people say to mix it and check on it throughout the melting process. I started to melt a pound of suet last night but I had to get to bed and unfortunately it was not melted and I did not want to leave the crockpot on all night without being able to watch the crockpot. Would it be ok to leave it all night on a low or even warm setting? Thank you.

 

[Obsidian]

I boil suet with just enough water to cover it, faster that way then waiting for it to melt in the crock pot.

 

[love4soaping]

Do you have to do anything special with the rendered tallow after it is melted if you use water or just strain it through cheesecloth like usual?

 

[girlishcharm2004]

Rendering tallow is tedious. I boil with water because it goes faster, and even faster with smaller pieces of fat, too. Strain out the chunks with a cheese cloth. To separate the water from the fat, it'll need to be chilled to make the fat solid. Otherwise, if you leave it at room temperature, then it'll be hard to get the fat paste out of the water without mixing the two again! I toss the water/gelatin down the sink, pat the cold fat block dry, set it in another bowl to allow it to come to room temperature. If *at room temperature* it's oily, grainy, yellowish, or has an unpleasant smell, it needs to go back in the pot with more water. Bring to a boil... and repeat until all the impurities are completely removed. Impurities will make your fat go rancid sooner. It also makes food taste terrible if you cook with it, and it doesn't feel good on the skin. You should have a white, thick paste with very little smell and smooth consistency. I hope this helps!

 

[girlishcharm2004]

Come to think of it, I know people render tallow without water. I don't know how they would remove the impurities if they didn't use water.

 

[Obsidian]

I just strain it through a jam bag then let the water cool, once the tallow is hard you remove it from the water. If the tallow still has dark spots or smells too meaty, you can boil it again in fresh water to wash it. Restrain and cool, if there is loose bits on the underside of the tallow slab, wipe it off with a paper towel.

 

[love4soaping]

Thank you for the info. I wanted to just give it a try and I have read about it. It does take time and figured if I try it once and do not like it I do not have to do it again.

 

[Feather]

Add salt when you render it. It helps get impurities out of it and it will smell cleaner when you are done.

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingoils/ss/rendertallow_2.htm

 

[love4soaping]

Certain amount of baking soda to add or salt?

 

[Feather]

Certain amount of baking soda to add or salt?

I don't know about baking soda, though it is water soluble, it *should* come out in the water.
Some recipes for rendering say 1 T / lb of suet, some say 3 or 4 T / lb of suet. I don't consider myself an expert on that. I have rendered suet before, I used a small amount of salt and water. I cooked it on the stove, it didn't stink up the room as I feared. A lot depends on how clean the suet is to begin--less connective tissue and meat.

 

[grayceworks]

Is it better to render beef tallow/suet with or without water in the crockpot? Thank you

I did it in the crockpot without water the first time thru. I chopped it up fairly fine, but didn't grind it. Just let it melt down on low overnight. Strained through cheesecloth and fine wire mesh.

Then I returned that to the crockpot with heavily salted water and boiled again, strained again through extra layers of cheesecloth, then hardened in the fridge.

When it was solid, I then lifted out the tallow and weighed it into containers in the amounts i usually use for my recipes. now I can just grab a pre-measured container of it.

I do the same with fat-back pork, except I don't need to salt the water for that!

 

[love4soaping]

I did try rendering it without any salt or baking soda and it was a really nice white but it smelled so much like beef and I tried to put it back in the crockpot with baking soda and salt, even tried adding peppermint leaves to it but it smelled so bad I was gagging and just threw it over the fence......I have come to conclusion that it is just not for me. Thank you for your help everyone.

 

[Feather]

I did try rendering it without any salt or baking soda and it was a really nice white but it smelled so much like beef and I tried to put it back in the crockpot with baking soda and salt, even tried adding peppermint leaves to it but it smelled so bad I was gagging and just threw it over the fence......I have come to conclusion that it is just not for me. Thank you for your help everyone.

At least you tried!
When I first read your post, I read, "but it smelled so bad I was gagging and just threw up in it.......". Then I realized I hadn't read it correctly, I had just skimmed it.

 

[AKjulz]

Feather, "just threw up in it.." Now THAT does NOT make for good label appeal! Haha. Good thing it was just thrown over the fence.
Last time I was rendering my girls had some friends over, my daughter asked "what's cooking on the stove?" I'm like "oh, it's pig fat". My daughter knew it was for soap, but her friend got this rather horrible expression other face hoping that wasn't for dinner!

 

[Feather]

Feather, "just threw up in it.." Now THAT does NOT make for good label appeal! Haha. Good thing it was just thrown over the fence.
Last time I was rendering my girls had some friends over, my daughter asked "what's cooking on the stove?" I'm like "oh, it's pig fat". My daughter knew it was for soap, but her friend got this rather horrible expression other face hoping that wasn't for dinner!

heh, You are right!
Ingredients:
(in order of used most to used least)
tallow, puke, olive oil, soy bean oil, essential oil of roast beef, essential oil of barf.
Doesn't really work.

 

[Obsidian]

That does not paint a pretty picture lol.

@love4soaping
I wonder if your suet was a bit old? It shouldn't have smelled that bad and once you boil it a couple times it should be nearly scent free. You also need to remove all the meat, it should be pure fat you render down.

 

[EvilTOJ]

heh, You are right!
Ingredients:
(in order of used most to used least)
tallow, puke, olive oil, soy bean oil, essential oil of roast beef, essential oil of barf.
Doesn't really work.

This would probably make a good dog bath soap. They'd love it!

 

[girlishcharm2004]

My husband can't stand the smell of rendering tallow. It doesn't smell terrible to me, but I've heard a lot of people find the smell atrocious. Since, my husband has told me to buy it from now on. I don't mind that either; it's a lot less work! I personally find rendering tallow to be a tedious task indeed.