Dianna's Sugar Plum Sundries

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Rendering Tallow

Tallow can be used ( and is in most commercially made soap) as the base oil. I think every soaper (with the obvious exception of the vegetarians) should make tallow at least once. It is a very long but very satisfying experience. You will rarely find rendered tallow for sale.

1. Collect beef fat scraps from your butcher. Specify beef because pork fat will produce lard. Lard makes a good soap, but the characteristics are subtly different.
2. Cut the scraps into small pieces. If you have a nice enough butcher, ask if he will run them through the grinder for you.
3. Put fat in a large pot with about 2 cups of water. (we are talking 10-15 pounds of fat) and
4. Cook on low heat for 8-12 hours.
5. Strain the fats through a loose cloth (unbleached muslin works great) and
6. Place in a refrigerator for 12-24 hours
7. When the tallow hardens it should be a lovely creamy white.
8. Lift the tallow out of the bowl and scrape off the gel and you will have beautiful tallow (the layer of gel on the bottom contains the water and some of the beef that was suspended in the fat)
9. Store it in the freezer until you are ready to make soap with it

Suet (a nice byproduct of making tallow)

1. Save the leftover meat scraps and press them into the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan so that it is about 1 1/2 inches deep. This is the expensive suet you buy at the lawn and garden for the birds.
2. Mix in birdseed if you like before the suet hardens
3. Store it in the freezer until winter

If you don't want to got through all this, you can buy lard in the stores, or you can use shortening as a substitute for the tallow in just about any recipe you come across. I hope you enjoy this process!!