i know this is an older post but i just found it and am interested in your "cleaning" method. I have just started rendering fat from the butcher and its full of leftover bits of this and that.. not the perfect suet stuff, but good grass fed local beef fat. i get it free, i love using it. but the first, second and third cleaning you speak of? are you rendering it, pouring it through a sieve, allowing it to harden, then repeating this two more times? I am rendering mine, then pouring it through a mesh metal sieve and its fully clear of bits but smells of beef... im just wondering if there are more steps i should be following.
Hi! 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 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 2-3 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. After its done reacting, you don't have to worry about it again. I just do it this first render, and not being a chemist and doing a little poking around, I realized the salt may be reacting with the sodium bicarbonate and in essence neutralizes it thus preventing it from helping with the smell :shock: I'm no scientist lol, so hopefully one of our science savvy persons, thinking deeanna....can better explain the chemical reaction of sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride in a heated water type situation.
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.
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.
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.
Pop out the solid fat disc and place in the pot. Fill with water to cover to the top of the fat. Add about a quarter cup of salt. 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.
I do it again. This time I use about between 1/8 and 1/4 cup of salt. The water after cooling is a cloudy white, but getting cleaner looking.
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. 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.