Rendering Tallow for Soap-making and Cooking

Last night we posted about bring home meat from the slaughterhouse.  We not only bring home meat, but fat and bones. The first thing we elected to do to free up some in the freezer is to render the fat.  It doesn't sound like a pleasant experience, but it's not too bad.  What it does is turn a 'waste product' into something useful - valuable even.  As we expressed earlier, when you bring an animal to slaughter, it is yours.  You can keep everything except the "moo."

Here's how we do it.  We open the bag of fat.  It is not particularly nice to look at.   

We begin by filling the biggest pot we have on the stovetop with pieces of fat, turning the stove on to heat it up.  At first the stove is set to high and then later to low. As it heats, the fat liquifies.  It takes a couple of hours, tops.

While hot the clear fat is poured through a cloth lined sieve and into casserole glass dishes.  This separates out the meat (beef cracklins) from the fat.  

Here is a photo of those 'beef cracklins' left over after the fat is rendered.  A little this goes to Belle (our dog).

Once the tallow has cooled, it turns a creamy white color.

We put the tallow in the fridge to make it cold.  We find it cuts better that way.  Then we begin cutting it into squares.  

We bag up those squares into gallon-size freezer bags, label them, date them, and put them in the freezer for storage.

As we need them, we remove and use.  Use the tallow as a cooking oil, similar to what you'd use hog lard for.  We also use it in soap-making. 

Although we didn't get the step by step picks, during the fat-rendering process, we also are boiling the bones to make beef broth.  We add carrot tops, onions and peppers and cook on the stovetop for two to two and a half days.  In the end, the result is rich beef broth which we can in a pressure cooker for later use.

This will be used as a base for soups and gravies.  Using this in place of water when cooking rice is a game-changer.  

Rendering Tallow

When you bring an animal to the slaughterhouse, the entire animal is yours.  You can ask for anything you want off of him and they will bag it up and send it home with you.  We always ask for the bones and the fat in addition to the meat.  The bones are roasted and boiled to make a nice beef broth.  That can be used as a base for soups.  You can use it in place of water when cooking rice to make your rice taste richer.

The fat is another thing we ask for as we make beef tallow from it.  In THIS POST FROM 2015 we take you through the steps of rendering beef tallow.  You can click on that link for the whole process, but today we'll show you the end result. 

The bull we brought to slaughter this year wasn't skinny, he was just real lean.  All muscle.  Not much fat.  A certain amount of fat is needed when making ground meat and half of him was used for ground meat.  In the end, we just had one small bag of fat for making tallow.  Tricia cooked it down on the stove until most of it liquefied and then poured it into a pyrex baking dish.  It was transparent at that point.  Then it was put into the refrigerator and it turned into a creamy white color with a tinge of yellow. 

We cut it up into chunks and put into a gallon-sized zip loc bag and then put in the freezer.  As needed, we'll pull out a square of fresh rendered beef tallow.

So what do you use beef tallow for?  Well, use it in place of cooking oil.  Tricia keeps a little ramekin of beef tallow by the stove that she uses.  Lately, we've been using it to make homemade soap.  We've made three batches so far and it has put a dent in our inventory of tallow.  Since Astro the bull was very lean and we were only able to render one pan of tallow, we'll have to contact a friend who brings calves to slaughter and see if he'll give us a big bag of fat.  Until then, we'll ration this tallow and/or slow down on the soap-making.

Using Everything Except the "Moo"

A couple of years ago when we butchered a steer, we asked the people at the slaughterhouse to save us all the fat.  We believe in using as much of the animal as possible.  We use everything except the "moo."  The steer was fat and we actually had too much fat!  Last year when we brought our Jersey bull calf to the slaughterhouse, we asked them to save the fat again.  Chuck, the Jersey bull, was a leaner animal.  A lot of his fat went into the ground beef, but we still were able to get some and freeze it in big bags.

This week Tricia thawed it out and began processing it.  She placed the fat in big pots on the stove and began heating it up, letting it cook for most of the day.  No, it doesn't look too nice.

Much of the fat liquefies into oil.  The remainder reminds me of cracklins.  This job is probably best done outside, but the mosquitoes are terrible right now and it is terribly hot.

We try to spoon out most of the remaining fat that wasn't converted to oil and then we pour the oil through a muslin cloth stretched over a colander to filter the rendered fat.

What we are left with is clean cooking oil rendered from beef fat.

While this is still hot, we pour into a Pyrex cooking dish and set aside on the counter and allow to cool.

The remaining 'nastiness' that is made up of fat, gristle, meat, cartilage, bone, etc. is gradually fed to Big Boy.  He seems to like it, despite the fact that it doesn't look appetizing.

As the beef tallow cools, it loses its transparent quality and becomes as white as a bar of Ivory Soap.  The work is almost done.  We now cut up the beef tallow into squares.

Using spatulas, we scoop the tallow out and place into zip loc bags where they will be frozen in the deep freeze.

As we need cooking oil, we'll pull a square or two out of the freezer and heat in a cast iron skillet.  With heat added, the beef tallow becomes cooking oil again and can be used the same as any other cooking oil that you might use.

Using beef tallow reminds me of what many people grew up watching their moms and grandmothers do.  I can remember bacon grease being poured in a coffee cup or can to be used as cooking oil later on.  It would turn snow white and then a spoonful could be scooped out and put in a skillet to add wonderful flavor to whatever dish happened to be on the menu.  Fat doesn't have to be a waste product that is thrown away. 

Summer Squash Time!

On the higher side of the garden, things are thriving.  On the low side, not so much. According to the weekly forecast, there is basically no chance of rain this week, and that will allow for some drying out to occur.  We definitely need that.  I need to plant some purple hull peas and get my okra and basil transplants in the ground.

Let's take a look at the north part of the garden.  On the left (below) there is a trellis with some pole beans growing skyward along with some Malabar spinach.  On the right is an absolute jungle of cucumbers.  I have four different varieties planted and I picked the first one last night - a Japanese long cucumber.  Between those two is what we'll talk about today.  I have fourteen hills of four different varieties of summer squash.  The plants are healthy looking and the hay has done a great job of crowding out any weed growth.

Welcome to the Jungle

If you take a peek beneath the foliage, the yellow blooms guarantee a fantastic harvest.  The bees and other pollinators have discovered the blooms and are doing their job.

Squash Blossoms

You can see squash at various stages of development.  With nice weather, it doesn't take long at all for the squash to mature and be ready to pick.

Baby Crookneck Squash

The first day I went out without a bucket and picked five nice squash.  With no bucket, I simply put them in my shirt and pulled the bottom up to make a makeshift container.  Every day since, I've brought a bucket as my shirt wouldn't hold the bounty.

Straight neck Squash

The first and easiest thing we've done with them is simply stir fry them with some rendered beef tallow that we told you about Here.  Squash with some onions is a perfect, healthy side dish for any meal, adding great flavor and color.

Skillet fried squash in beef tallow

The very next night, Tricia took a couple of our pastured eggs from our benevolent hens and made an egg bath.  She cut the squash into disks, put them in the eggs, and rolled them in flour.

Then using the beef tallow that we rendered that you can see in the bowl on the top right of the photo below, she fried them in the skillet.  We enjoyed the bountiful harvest immensely.  Local Food at its best. 

Fried yellow squash

While those recipes are delicious, we haven't eaten my all-time favorite squash recipe - YET: 

Black-eyed Pea's Baked Squash Casserole  Click on that link and give it a try.  It is really a side dish, but I could make a meal of it.  Zucchini, both the black beauty and the grey varieties, will be coming in shortly.  Can't wait.