February 22, 2009 Relief Society spotlight on rendering fat into tallow (beef) or lard (pork).

While living on the first farm located in Pennsylvania, we lived in an area of dairy farmers. Although we were considered "city-folk" and not one of the "in-crowd", people there were friendly and willing to help anyone. I learned a lot of frugality and ways to use almost everything at hand and not waste anything that could be useful.

We had two pigs that we raised in our own barn. My husband was in sales and made sales calls to a large cheese-making factory. A by-product of cheese making is whey. It was sold by the factory in powdered form to others, but several bags were given to my husband. We mixed the whey with water each day and supplemented the diet of our pigs with it. They thrived and grew large. After they were butchered, I saved the fat from the meat in a plastic bag and placed it in the freezer so that I could continue to collect enough scraps to render into lard.

At that same time we also raised our own beef and had it slaughtered, processed and packaged by meat cutters who worked full time at a local food market, but would come to individual farms to give this service. Beef fat is harder than pork fat. I learned how to render the fat by reading articles on it. I used my electric frying pan and put that pan as far away from the edge of the kitchen counter as I could as I did not want any of my four young children to get burned by fat that sputtered from time to time. I set the dial on the frying pan on low and allowed the fat to render or cook. As the pieces began to melt, I would turn the fat over so that it was exposed to the frying pan heat on both sides, much the same way that bacon is cooked. Over time the fat cooks out of the pieces in the pan, and cracklings are left. Cracklings are those pieces of fat that contain small bits of meat and hardened fat that just won't render or melt down any further. Some folks think these are tasty and eat them. I wouldn't even remotely consider eating them, although they did smell pretty good.

I strained the melted fat into a pot and added at least a quart of water. The amount of water depends on how much fat is in the pot. If you had a quart of melted fat, I would add at least two quarts of water. Standing by the stove continually, you would watch that pot until the mixture of fat and water came to a boil. Let it slowly boil for a few minutes to make sure that all fat is in a liquid state. Once you have done that, add two more quarts of very cold water and remove the pot from the stove and let the whole thing cool. Once the pot cools down enough that it can be refrigerated with the lid on or placed in a cold spot like a garage (if it's winter), let the fat harden.

When you are ready to work with the fat again to further clean it, put the pot with the hardened fat and water on your kitchen counter. Try to loosen the fat from the sides of the pan with a dull knife. You are trying to get that fat out of the pot in as few pieces as possible. (Fat needs to be washed in the manner you have just done because as it cooks, small pieces of meat and cracklings adhere to the fat and make it difficult to store the fat for long periods of time due to their breaking down.) Once you lift that fat out of the pot, you will see cracklings and small bits of meat that adhered to the bottom of the fat block. Scrape those off and get down to fat with nothing adhering to it.

Repeat this process again as many times as necessary of melting the fat in two quarts of water. Once it has liquified and has reached the boiling point, add two quarts of very cold water and repeat the above steps. You will see that as you do this that the fat becomes purer and purer. It should be almost pure white by the time you have done this at least four times. If not, then keep repeating the process until the fat is pure white with no "meat" smell. Once it has reached that point, pour the liquified fat into a long-term storage container and screw the top on the container.

This fat can be used in cooking, in making soap, or in making emergency candles. It was winter when this beef fat was rendered so I melted the tallow (fat) in a deep one-pound coffee can (gotten from a neighbor). I tied some wicking to a ruler and dipped the wick into the tallow. As you withdraw the wick from the fat, the fat adhering to the wick begins to harden. I placed those wicks outside to harden fully and then repeated this process several times until I had a decent sized candle. This candle is to be used in emergencies as it gives off quite a little smoke. I experimented and added a slab of parafin (sold in the canning department of any store carrying canning supplies). The parafin cut down on the smoking quite a little and gave me a harder candle which burned better.

The main reason I am giving you this information is to show how the wives of the farmers let nothing go to waste that could be used. I have saved fat from beef roasts and fat that I have collected from frying hamburger up before serving it or canning it. I have gotten quite a little. If you have cleaned your fat to the point that there is no meat odor in the fat, it will keep nicely in a cool dry place without needing refrigeration. I hesitate to say that the fat doesn't need refrigeration if you are going to use it to cook with (as in cooking with shortening). I wouldn't take that kind of chance. It will keep for years if kept in a closed container and kept cool and is thoroughly cleaned.

Pork fat can be rendered the same way but tends to be a softer fat than beef fat. I wouldn't use pork fat to make candles, but it can be rendered according to the same directions above and used in place of shortening for frying, piecrusts, cooking, etc. Clean it thoroughly and store it in the refrigerator.

Remember that you can collect your fat scraps and place them in a sealable plastic bag or container stored in the freezer until you have enough to render.