Press or Render a Quart of Oil or Fat - food.straw.oilfat PEP BB

Our male gander started fighting with his son and not letting him into the shelter at night. The weather gave me a window of opportunity which I took Sat Dec 31st. With the really cold weather we've had this year, I couldn't believe both how many feathers the young gander had, and how much fat was in his body cavity. I have never officially rendered fat before - just let it cool on top of broth and removed it for other purposes. A permies thread about the process had this link:
https://soulyrested.com/2022/03/17/complete-guide-to-rendering-lard/
so I tried to follow the suggestions there.

This first picture is the first chunk of fat from the jar, and the heart which had been sitting on top of it in the fridge:


I chopped it up fairly finely and put it in the saucepan on very low heat and then kept cutting and cutting...

I eventually got to the bottom of the jar, where the liver was sitting. A lot of fat came out just on fairly low heat while I was still chopping, as can be seen in the picture.

The website said that 220 F was a good target temperature, and I easily reached that in less than 30 minutes - goose fat is clearly easy to render!



I skimmed off any biggish chunks into a bowl. I then poured the rest through a sieve into two 500 ml canning jars which Mr. G--gle says is slightly more than a "quart". I didn't try to get it all out of the pot, because this is where the heart and liver came in... chopped with garlic, onion, and an egg, all cooked in the residual fat in the pot and turned into pate for lunch tomorrow!



However, there was also some milk in the fridge that *had* to get used. My Cheese Biscuit recipe calls for vegetable oil, but I *much* prefer to use fats I've grown. This last picture shows the results of using some of my newly rendered fat. Hopefully, they'll taste good with liver pate on them for lunch tomorrow!

A friend (who does organic keto) moved and gifted me this fat, I saved some for sausage. The fat was obtained from her pig share from a local farm.

Two slow cookers worth, half the cracklins are shown, we made fried dough in some lard last night, and my house smells like pork roast/carnitas for the last two days.

I rendered some beef fat into tallow.  It is nutritious and delicious.  We do this pretty regularly in our house.  Send the fat through the meat grinder to get it into as small of pieces as possible and heat slowly until all the water evaporates off (when the crackling stops).

There is a picture of the cookware labeled as a 5qt pot that was half full of tallow at the end of the process.  2-ish quarts of tallow is a good size batch!

Hello PEP-folks,
Following on the pig-raising post, yesterday I rendered lard! We'd done it before a few times, as well as tallow, but this was a very satisfying process in that I correctly budgeted the time for it, and it didn't seem to go on f..o..r..e..v..e..r...
This was Kune-kune pork fat. The cats were happy about the dropped bits and some cracklings.
1) Crack off chunks from the bag'o'frozen fat
2) Cut chunks into small-ish cube-ish bits
3) Put small amount of water in bottom of pot to start the heat transfer
4) Add chunks and let it go for about 3hrs
5) Strain into jars and press cracklings to get the goo stuff out.
6) Label and laager it.
Cutting time was 30 min, rendering time was 3hrs, started it at dinner, finished by bedtime. Yield was 2qts+1pint mason jars.

Some of it we may sell, some we will use. There is a lot more fat to render, from the most recent pig and from prior ones.
Happy homesteading!
Mark

First time to render tallow! I purchased about 2 1/2 pounds of beef fat from a local farmer for $5. I followed instructions from The Nourishing Asian Kitchen to make 1 quart of tallow.  This was easier than I thought. Just had to keep an eye on it so it didn't burn.

I realized that after it solidified! I took the tallow out of the jar, re-melted it and put it into cups. I made 2 cups of tallow. I will make 2 more cups and re-submit. Thank you.

May I use pig belly from the butcher wrapped in paper into bacon grease?
Maybe cow butter wrapped in oiled paper into ghee?
or maybe both to total a quart?
Thanks!

I was gifted an amazing deer to butcher! He was a big, trophy buck! Although I never saw the "trophy-worthy-bits." Just the meat and fat and bones! And BOY was there quite a bit of fat.

Minimum requirements for this BB:
- Oils and Fats - press or render a quart of oil or fat - do one. Possibilities include:
 - Flax (linseed) oil
 - Sunflower oil
 - Walnut oil
 - Hazelnut oil
 - Lard
 - Tallow
 - Can be small quantities over time

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 mins):
  - source of oil or fat before processing
  - pressing or rendering the oil or fat
  - finished oil or fat after processing (meeting the above stated requirements)

I decided to record my beef suet rendering over time in order to accomplish this BB.

BB Requirements

Chunk of suet


In the pot to render down


End result (Just shy of two and a half cups)


Additional Rendering to get BB required amount #1

Bulk suet in the pot to render down


End result (A cup and some)


Additional Rendering to get BB required amount #2

Bulk suet in the pot to render down


End result (At least two cups)



I produced more than 4 cups (a quart) and have enjoyed my time rendering and cooking with tallow. I plan on continuing its use!

Rendered the fat from hubs bear harvest  in the slow cooker. I've also used the stove top but this my preferred method.