I'm rendering Deer Fat for Tallow

[gmww]

I got from the butcher the fat he trimmed from my two deer and the two deer my buddy and son brought in. I cut the fat I was going to boil into small diced pieces to make it go faster.

I boiled it and poured the liquid into a bowl. I've done this three times so far with the same fat hoping to get as much of the tallow as possible. I thought I would be able to strain the melted tallow through a paper towel or coffee filter to get all the impurities out. Instead it does not stain the oil but rather any water I still have.

So now the mixture with with water is in the refrigerator so I can create a nice thick layer on top. I'm thinking Ill physically wipe the impurities on the outside away. I'm also thinking that I'll nuke it to liquid again and strain it wish cheese cloth (deer bag folded over) to help get the impurities out.

 

[Black Hand]

Most of the junk will collect at the interface of the fat and water. Just scrape it off the bottom of the congealed fat and you are good to go. The rendered/cleaned tallow I have is very nearly pure white with a very hard/waxy consistency.

I prefer to melt my fat in a pot without water on low heat. This gets the fat out and the cracklings can be strained out, and the fat allowed to cool. I then bring it to a simmer in water, cool and remove from the pot. I repeat this 2-3 times to get the rest of the "goo" out of the tallow.

 

[boar]

Best cheap lube I found so far. And it don"t run out of the tins. All I did was cook it in a cast iron skillet. Fed cracklings to dogs. Dilly

 

[gmww]

Well I stuck everything in the frig. After about an hour the top was nice and waxy hard. I removed it and cleaned out the glass measuring bowl. I rubbed off the crud under the layer which turned out to be small particles of fat.

I put the tallow back into a clean measuring bowl and nuked it to liquid form. I then poured it through a screen to a smaller bowl twice to clean out the other crud still floating around. I got most of it.

The whole thing is now cooling in the frig.

 

[gmww]

I took it out of the frig and it looks pretty good. Not too sure about the feel. Seems to be a little harder than I thought it would be. Does bees wax make it even harder or does it cause it to be more of a paste?

I was reading 50:50 mix was good.

 

[boar]

Beeswax will make it harder. I had to put beeswax in the groundhog tallow as it stays oil at room temp to keep it from running out of tin into bag. Deer no problem. Dilly

 

[guncobbler]

Not that you need much of it but deer tallow makes some pretty good chap stick. I mix vaseline with it to get the right consistancy but you could use a natural oil too. That stick to your tongue property of deer tallow sure makes it stick to your lips. GC

 

[smokehouseman]

Mixed mine with equal parts deer tallow, bees wax, and Marvel Mystery Oil...........works for me :wink:

 

[Swamp Buck]

Question??? When you removed the fat from the deer, which part of the body did you remove it from or does that really matter. I was wondering if the fat from the inside of the deer around where the kidneys were was any different from the fat layer on the outside of the hindquarters and covering the backstrap.

 

[gmww]

I was reading that the fat from the kidney was the best for making soap. The writer of that article went on to say they he could not tell the difference between the kidney fat and fat from the other parts of the body.

The fat I'm using came from everywhere.

 

[gmww]

Here is a pictorial of what I did today.

I cut it up into small pieces to speed up the process.

It was boiled, strained and re-boiled three times to get all the oil out of the fat.

Here is the strained water/fat ready to be refrigerated.

After it was refrigerated I removed and cleaned the tallow. It was then nuked for more straining.

The nuked liquid was then strained with a screen to remove the last bits of fatty tissue.

This is the nuked, strained liquid about to be poured into a tupperware container.

Finally the refrigerated deer tallow in the tupperware. All done!

 

[Grizzled Roberts]

I have noticed that the tallow of NC Does rendered
out harder than the Tallow of Ohio Bucks.
I prefer the frying pan method. I got one of those
half round strainers that fit on the edge of a pot or bucket. I do the first melt and pour the mess through the strainer ( except for the big pieces )I wipe off the pan and pour the contents
of the pot back into the pan. Once the fat gets hot I place one layer of cheese cloth over the strainer and pour the contents of the pan through the strainer.
I repeat the process one more time with two layers of cheese cloth and I have pure tallow.
I have open tins of tallow over two years old in my house. It does not go rancid when prepared right.
I must give a safety notice. Unless you are a grizzled old single man like me, do not cook up your tallow in your kitchen. Them cracklings will smell up your house for several weeks!

:thumbsup:

 

[FSCGunslinger]

When I rendered my deer fat for pemmican, I used a small skillet and fried up the fat till I had plenty of liquid, then just poured it into a clear glass cooking dish filled halfway with water. After it set up in the fridge, I just scrapped the impurities off the bottom. Wash, rinse, and repeat two more times for thrice-purified tallow.

Edited: Just realized this thread is almost a year old, but I reckon it still applies. :grin: