crisco candle

paul wheaton wrote:
And now .... the bacon candle

Just rendered some tallow. It seems stiffer at room temp than lard (or crisco).. might make a better candle.

i have a fantasy novel that talks about tallow candles

For thanksgiving I built a Crisco Candle in an old cookie tin & put a candle in the center for the wick. I still burn it for several hours a night. No fumes, no smoke, has scent of canle I used from the Dollar store. Its great. Also served for great conversation & my chance to share with the family all the fabu permaculture Im Thankfull enought to be learning. As for the Bacon Candle: Couldn't one take the same idea as the Crisco candle & pour the fat around a taper other simular candle then let it harden instead of gumming up your power tools w/ fat?

MsMinuette wrote:
As for the Bacon Candle: Couldn't one take the same idea as the Crisco candle & pour the fat around a taper other simular candle then let it harden instead of gumming up your power tools w/ fat?

I am not sure but I think it is a joke... the drill being the "manly" way of doing it. Similar to the picture I have somewhere of a man on a "rider vacuum" that says john deer on it in a big mansion with a caption underneath that says "... if men did house work."

Actually bacon fat... aka lard, is pretty soft at room temp. one could probably push a candle down the center without heating it too. We found our home rendered lard was soft like "butter at room temp" even straight out of the fridge... very easy to use. The tallow we just did is much harder, almost like wax. At room temp it is still as hard as "butter from the fridge". We use it for cooking so it is ok (I use it to grease bread pans too).

Tallow was used to make candles before paraffin. It may also have a use as a phase change heat storage substance too (think hot water bottle that stays warm longer).

Back when I was making candles on a regular basis I would add a little crisco to my container wax as it would help the wax adhere to the jar better.  This was especially true in winter when if it got too cold in the house the wax would release in places leaving little bubbles of fragrance oil behind so it looked all spotty.  The pockets of oil could also ignite while burning which could cause problems.

Paul and Jocelyn give listener feedback in this podcast. podcast

They talk about frugality and making crisco candles (with bacon drippings!)