Deer tallow?

[Barry Stewart]

I have three frozen whitetail hides that I just fleshed in preparation of brain tanning. I was able to save about two sandwhich bags worth of fat from the hides and plan on making some tallow. I understand that it can be prepared and used just by itself or with bees wax added. I would like to add bees wax to mine and was wondering if anyone could recommend a ratio of bees wax to tallow and advise on how to mix it together? Thanks in advance.

 

[coloradoclyde]

It will depend on what you want the final consistency to be.

Tallow by itself is pretty stiff IMO....But Beeswax will add temperature resistance...Just start off small, with a small quantity and percentage of beeswax....once it completely cools you can evaluate and adjust until you achieve the desired mix ratio.

Note: Make sure you refine the tallow first or any tiny meat chunks will rot and go rancid.

 

[Barry Stewart]

Thanks for the info!

 

[BrownBear]

You wan to render it from fat to tallow to clean it first before blending with beeswax.

I use all sorts of ratios, depending on air temp- more beeswax for hot weather, less for cold weather. My definition of "hot and cold" in Alaska is going to be different than yours in NoCal. I'm betting my "summer" mix is in the neighborhood of what you'll use in the winter at 50-60 degrees. That's 2:1, tallow to beeswax. In winter down around freezing I'm using 3:1.

 

[Barry Stewart]

Thanks Brown Bear! I'll start with your recommendation of a 2:1 ratio, sounds about right. I plan on filtering it through a cotton or linen rag then keeping the rag for wiping down metal components, barrels, locks, blades etc.

 

[coloradoclyde]

You can also render it by boiling in water for a long time...then place everything in the refrigerator....The meat and undesirables will settle to the bottom and the fat/tallow will rise on top of the water and solidify....making it easy to separate.

Or you can cook it down and then add water and refrigerate....

 

[jackley]

This is some tallow I rendered Nov. 30 1999, It still smells the same as when it was first rendered. It is very stiff, I made candles and lube with it 3 to 1. I think I can call my experiment a success tallow rendered 3 times will keep forever.



Jerry

 

[Barry Stewart]

Thank you gentlemen. This is exactly the info I was looking for. If I get a chance to render it today I will try and post some photos.