Beef Tallow

[jettibo]

So I was rendering beef tallow this weekend. I put 8 pounds of beef fat in a roasting pan and covered with water. I put it in a 200 degree oven for 12 hours, then left it on the counter to cool. I finally ended up having to transfer the top layer to a rubbermaid container and adding water to it in hopes that any chunks would sift themselves to the bottom and make it easier to seperate them from the rendered tallow. However, looking at my tallow in the container it has seperated nicely but there is obviously some meat mixed in with the tallow. Now what do I do?? I'm not sure I'm doing this right at all. Any advice. My mom tried to tell me how they rendered lard, but she got off on a tangent about the skin craklin that they ate and didn't help me too much.

 

[Soapmaker Man]

I get my kidney fat ground like hamburger size at the meat department. They charge me .25 per pound to grind it. When I get it home, I put about 5 pounds in a big stock pot and cover with water. I put in a 1/8 cup of salt and a few cut-in-half potatoes. I slow boil it for about 30 minutes.
I skim off the fat with a ladle into a plastic bucket, and place it in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, I turn it over in the sink, and clean the bottom and put it in storage containers.

Paul :wink:

 

[PrincessMommy]

you should strain the mixture to get any chunksand bits out. I have a hand-held wire strainer that works nicely. Then cool it completely. When you take the tallow out there will be a bit more smaller bits on the bottom that should scrap off fairly easily.

 

[cassy]

I wanted to just say that my husband is a butcher and he grinds my tallow beef/kidney fat or pig fat through the grinder for me and then I jsut take it home and put it in the crock pot, ( outside ) It will melt down and then all you have to do is strain it through cheese cloth. I get the a nice white solid oil. I love it. No water added. I then store it in my outside fridge. I was wondering why you add water?

 

[PrincessMommy]

I was wondering why you add water?

I think the water keeps the fat from burning when cooking on a stove top.

 

[jettibo]

The first time I added water to the cooking process was because that's what the book said to do. The second time I added water before putting it in the fridge was in hopes that when everything separated out any bits of meat would fall to the bottom and away from the fat.