Rendered tallow from wild animals?

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cinnamaldehyde

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Kind of a random question I know... but has anyone used tallow rendered from wild game, like moose, deer, elk, even bear?

While I myself don't hunt large animals, I grew up in a hunting family and live in an area where hunting for sustenance is fairly common. Most hunters here endeavor to use as much of the animal as they can, and I wonder how tallow from wild game would turn out.

Thoughts or experiences welcome!
 
Kind of a random question I know... but has anyone used tallow rendered from wild game, like moose, deer, elk, even bear?

While I myself don't hunt large animals, I grew up in a hunting family and live in an area where hunting for sustenance is fairly common. Most hunters here endeavor to use as much of the animal as they can, and I wonder how tallow from wild game would turn out.

Thoughts or experiences welcome!

Yes. Deer tallow makes an awesome ingredient for soap. The thing is, many wild game animals don't have a ton of fat on them. We're lucky enough that some of our deer come from the edges of farms, so they have quite a bit of fat on them at this time of year.

I've posted recipes on this forum that use a significant amount of deer tallow. I also use beef tallow, since I get a side of grass-fed beef every year and use as much as I can.
 
Soapcalc does have the numbers for some times of wild animal fat. I personally would LOVE to make some deer tallow soap, but every time I ask a processor, they condescendingly explain to me that deer don't have much fat. I KNOW that, but occasionally you do have a fat deer (usually b/c they ate a lot of corn).
 
I don't see a problem with that. Sounds like a good use of animal fat.

I'm not sure, that the lye calculations would be the same as for beef fat. It sounds like you will have to experiment with that.

BTW, recently, I viewed a story on TV about a criminally insane murderess who chopped up her victims and then dissolved their parts in lye to destroy the evidence. It was horrifying to learn that she then made soap. People came from miles around to purchase her soap and by the way, tea biscuits which were also made from the remnants of her victims.
 
Yooper, do you sell? If so I'd love to order a bar.

Just ordered a bar of beef tallow and lard soap but really want to try one with deer tallow. TIA!
 
Just don't render the fat inside the house. Blech.


This should have been obvious to me but it wasn't. Thank you. I'm hoping my husband catches a deer soon so I can get me some deer fat! The cornfield around his property is still up though, so the deer haven't wandered over to his stand yet. Hopefully the corn came down this week.
 
This should have been obvious to me but it wasn't. Thank you. I'm hoping my husband catches a deer soon so I can get me some deer fat! The cornfield around his property is still up though, so the deer haven't wandered over to his stand yet. Hopefully the corn came down this week.

Right. To me, the fat is where most of the gameyness resides. If you've got corn near it might not be too bad, but if he's hunting a moss, bark, and acorn deer rendering the fat inside would be horribly smelly. This is a good use for that turkey frying rig, IMO.

If you process yourself, you'll get a lot more fat. There's a lot of it there, it's just not as convenient to pull off in bigger chunks like on a pig. Above and beyond typical meat trimmings, if you're really intent on getting the most fat possible, think making stock from the inedible parts and skimming off the fat. Organs - the brain is mostly fat and the kidney usually have the suet. Bones - deer ribs aren't usually worth messing with for human food, but they're certainly worth chopping up and rendering, along with all the long bones cracked for marrow. The skin will also yield a fair amount of fat, but it's the hardest/messiest to get because you'll have to boil the skin with the hair still on it. You can't use the typical lye method to of de-hairing because it will make soap of the very fat you're trying to get!

If you do this, your dogs are going to love you! :D

ETA: Don't feed the brains or spinal cords to your dogs. Even cooked are risky because prions survive cooking temperature. Odds are very high that your Wildlife Dept will be checking for signs of Chronic Wasting Disease at the check in station, but there's no reason to take chances, IMO.

Is it worse than beef fat? I got some advice on here that made rendering beef fat MUCH less unpleasant.

Yes. It will be very much more gamey. In my experience, most of the flavor/smell that people are talking about when they say they don't like deer comes from the fat. Now imagine concentrating that.
 
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Right. To me, the fat is where most of the gameyness resides. If you've got corn near it might not be too bad, but if he's hunting a moss, bark, and acorn deer rendering the fat inside would be horribly smelly. This is a good use for that turkey frying rig, IMO.



If you process yourself, you'll get a lot more fat. There's a lot of it there, it's just not as convenient to pull off in bigger chunks like on a pig.


We actually have a stove in the garage, which is where he'll butcher it, so I'll just commandeer ManLand for a bit. And I got a nice chuckle that you think I know how pig fat comes off...

Thank you very much for the info. I hope to be referring back to it tomorrow.
 
Yooper, do you sell? If so I'd love to order a bar.

Just ordered a bar of beef tallow and lard soap but really want to try one with deer tallow. TIA!

In the US, it's illegal to sell the products of hunting. Not trying to lecture anybody, just letting you know it will be difficult to find somebody selling wild deer tallow soap. However, there are people who ranch deer, elk, bison, etc and it's okay to sell those products.

I was on an animal fat soaping mailing list, and one lady and her husband ranched elk in Colorado. They sold the meat, hides, soap and the antlers.
 
In the US, it's illegal to sell the products of hunting.

Never thought of that, but's the same here in Canada. Not entirely sure about First Nations' hunters (whether they're allowed to sell) - I'll have to do some digging.

I do know an elk farmer though, which might be a good place to start.

I know deer doesn't have a lot of fat. Bear maybe. Soapcalc has bear tallow listed!

Thanks for all the input :)
 
Ah, interesting, Dixie Dragon, of course it makes sense that it's illegal to sell the products of hunting. I remember lots of sad stories of organs of poached animals from the mountains of Virginia being sold on the black market to China. Guess if I make tallow from hunters' harvests it will be just for me and family. Thanks for the heads' up and that mini-lecture was both justified and welcome :)
 
Its not that difficult once you get some. I wet render deer and bear fat in the house under the hood in the kitchen.

Wild pig and rabbit are outside (I cant deal with bunny stink)

I have loads of deer tallow, pm me and I can probably send you some.

I use songwinds shave soap recipe tweak with deer tallow and lanolin for the best shave soap ever.

elkusa.com will probably get you some fats if you ask them. I know they used to.

Deer, elk, goat and bison make a harder bar. Im not sensitive enough to tell the differences between these fats or beef tallow other than that I dont have to pay for it!

Rabbit is very soft, I wouldnt want more than 20-30% in a batch. It also takes a ton of big wild rabbits to get a few ounces.

Bear grease is pretty soft also, can be liquid at room temp. Way better suited for baking unless the bear has been feasting on fish or trash.

Have fun
 
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basically i just pour the fats mixed with a lil but of meat inside a pot and heat them, strain the melted fats afterwards? I'm scared if small portion of meats will be melted and got in through the strainer. i don't want to bath with meat. :'(
 
I don't see a problem with that. Sounds like a good use of animal fat.

I'm not sure, that the lye calculations would be the same as for beef fat. It sounds like you will have to experiment with that.

BTW, recently, I viewed a story on TV about a criminally insane murderess who chopped up her victims and then dissolved their parts in lye to destroy the evidence. It was horrifying to learn that she then made soap. People came from miles around to purchase her soap and by the way, tea biscuits which were also made from the remnants of her victims.
blech
 
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