Anyone know how to render animal fat & waste?

[bilko]

After finishing "The good Life" by dorian amos ( excellent book! ) i have been thinking about Canada more and more.
Don't laugh but i am giving myself a time frame of 4 years till my kids are old enough and i can do something similar.

So, during that time i will have to save up money and learn a host of skills that i will need to survive, No; why survive when you can LIVE with nature?
I realy should make a list of things to do but i have been thinking about hygene as in the top ten priorities whilst in the bush.

As i am talking about long term i thought it would be a good idea how to learn to make soap. I have read the recipe on here ( basically rendered fat, water and wood ash )but i need to know how to render fat from say a moose or deer.

google won't give me a straight answer so i was wondering if you guys know . I understand that rendered fat can also be used as a lamp.

Anyhow, thats the plan. It may be a flash in the pan or i may be being seen off by a bunch of you in 4 years with tear drenched hankies waving but it's keeping me busy in the meantime so wheres the harm?
It's good to dream

 

[outdoorgirl]

To render fat from any animal all you do is heat it gently in a pan. After a while, you'll end up with liquid fat, and some solid lumps of tissue. Strain the lot through a sieve lined with kitchen roll, and throw away what stays in the sieve. What you've got left is rendered fat. You can continue to warm and strain through finer materials for a purer result.

Don't heat the fat too much, or it will a) evaporate and b) burn if heated a lot.

I don't know what the proper temperatures are that you're supposed to keep to; we just warm it as slowly and gently as we can when we do it.

ODG

 

[Eric_Methven]

If you pass the fat through a mincer first you'll find it breaks down better. All the rendering does is separate all the little bits of meat, bone and gristle and allow them to be strained off. Put the minced fat into a large pan and ad a little water in the bottom. The water will stop the fat burning before it has a chance to liquify, but will evaporate off quite quickly. Cook it up slowly, it's not like you're frying chips or anything. When the fat is liquid and all the little bits are looking pretty black on the bottom you can strain it off. What you now have is rendered fat. It is also called dripping and is also known as tallow. It's dripping when you fry food with it and tallow when you use it to make candles.

To make soap from it you will also need sodium hydroxide (caustic soda). Let me know if you want specific recipes and methods of making soap and I'll post some here for you.

Eric

 

[Roving Rich]

Sorry - slight sidetrack, - I thought dripping was the "meat juice" that settled to the bottom under the fat itself.
My Dad used to drain the fat from the Sunday joint into a pot, and let it solidify. A thick layer of fat would form on the top, but you could break through this into a layer of brown "dripping" in the bottom, and spread this on your bread - "bread and dripping". Its quite tasty, a bit like marmite only not so in your face.

Yes pleas - a simple soap recipe would be great. The ones I have come across have been very complicated , with Glycerin and lye....

Cheers
Rich

 

[moduser]

Eric,

I'd be interested in any recipes you have for soap making.

I'm particularly interested in making good pine tar soap as I've found it difficult to buy (except for Woodlore) and would rather make my own anyway.

Any advice apprieciated.

thanks

David

 

[scanker]

There's basic soap-making instructions here.

HTH

 

[moduser]

Good link, thanks scanker.

 

[Abbe Osram]

After finishing "The good Life" by dorian amos ( excellent book! ) i have been thinking about Canada more and more.
Don't laugh but i am giving myself a time frame of 4 years till my kids are old enough and i can do something similar.

So, during that time i will have to save up money and learn a host of skills that i will need to survive, No; why survive when you can LIVE with nature?
I realy should make a list of things to do but i have been thinking about hygene as in the top ten priorities whilst in the bush.

As i am talking about long term i thought it would be a good idea how to learn to make soap. I have read the recipe on here ( basically rendered fat, water and wood ash )but i need to know how to render fat from say a moose or deer.

google won't give me a straight answer so i was wondering if you guys know . I understand that rendered fat can also be used as a lamp.

Anyhow, thats the plan. It may be a flash in the pan or i may be being seen off by a bunch of you in 4 years with tear drenched hankies waving but it's keeping me busy in the meantime so wheres the harm?
It's good to dream

Hi mate,
I don’t laugh, I am myself up here in the north of sweden with my family.
Based on my experience I would suggest two things.

Get yourself the book The Final Frontiersman : Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness .....this book gives you a good idea how it is to live with a family in the Bush and raise the children.

Most people in the bush are making a living by guiding, being park ranger, tourism, trapping (less and less) most of them get their supplies by air twice or three times a year. Go with you family for an extended cabin holiday here up north, we have 7 month of winter and it gets very cold and dark, most people cant stand it and in summer we have a lot of mosquito’s. Check with a holiday type of thing if you wife and kids can stand it. If you don’t have them supporting your idea you will not make it. My family wants to live in a small town where the kids can go to school, have friends, energy and a shower. But I am getting my land deeper in the woods and move back and forth between town life and the Bush.
We where 6 weeks in summer in a small cabin on a island and it worked great with the kids and wife but all of them told me that I can live like that if I want but they want to go back to the small town we live in. Its a good idea if you have the support of your little army with you mate.

Btw I just learned that the used ”coffee beans ground” (sorry don’t know the English word for it) from your coffee is a great substitute for hand cream, I tried it out and its true it makes the hands very smooth and you don’t need to buy hand cream. ;-)

All the best for your adventure, Good luck!

cheers
Abbe

 

[bloodline]

When I started out as a butcher one of our shops still used to make its own dripping. I only had to make it a few times but I just had to cut up the lumps of fat put them in a big pot over a heat source and add some water this stopped the fat and bits of meat sticking to the pot and also speeded the rendering process up. I suppose the steam from the water got the heat around quicker and started the fat melting. Then I strained it through a mutton cloth (off one of the lamb carcasses) and poured it into paper pots. It always set hard and I think it kept for ever or at least a long long time. We never used the dark stuff thats nice on toast because customers wanted pure white dripping. the dark stuff is meat juices and you get lots of that in dripping thats come from a joint of meat. Beef dripping sets harder than pork but both taste ok lamb is hard but doesnt taste as good and I wouldnt use it as a food source unless I was desperate it would be as good as the others for other uses though

 

[Carcajou Garou]

rendering fat for soap can be dangerous make sure that small children are away and supervised when this prcess is done. My grandmother lost a child when she was making soap, child was plaing close to the pot and her dress caught fire and she was burned badly and died some time afterwards. My grandmother used to make it in big batches that would make soap for a year.

 

[Toddy]

Minor quibble...in Scotland (and I believe in N. England and N. Ireland too, don't know about the Southerners )*dripping* is the fat from roasting meat with the suet from around the kidneys mixed in, heated very gently (sweated out is the term) and strained. Usually made from cattle and sometimes has a beefy taste. Still sold in the butchers' as Beef Dripping for those who like their chips cooked that way.
http://www.waitrose.com/food_drink/...eefdripping.asp

Tallow was the fat extracted from boiling up all of the sinewy bits and skin scraps. (the equivalent of mechanically recovered meat, I suppose) frequently made using sheep bits and pieces, and, or so I was informed by a slaughterman, horses too. Mutton fat makes excellent rush lights.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/bse...ade/tallow.html

The dripping was fit for eating, the latter used to make soap and candles. I suppose chemically it is the same stuff, animal fat, but there is a distinction.
Nowadays who knows where the fat in processed food comes from?

Incidentally, lard is pig fat and is soft, squidgy stuff compared to dripping which can be almost waxy hard.
Never found enough excess fat on deer to do anything with....haven't a clue about elk/caribou

Cheers,
Toddy.....who's vegetarian

 

[innocent bystander]

Sound's just like how they used to render whale blubber in the tryworks... Throw the slabs in a big pan, and fry off the blubber. The fritters would then be used for fuel, and they would just pour of the fat as they were going...

Martin, also a vegetarian

 

[bilko]

Hi mate,
I don’t laugh, I am myself up here in the north of sweden with my family.
Based on my experience I would suggest two things.

Get yourself the book The Final Frontiersman : Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness .....this book gives you a good idea how it is to live with a family in the Bush and raise the children.

Most people in the bush are making a living by guiding, being park ranger, tourism, trapping (less and less) most of them get their supplies by air twice or three times a year. Go with you family for an extended cabin holiday here up north, we have 7 month of winter and it gets very cold and dark, most people cant stand it and in summer we have a lot of mosquito’s. Check with a holiday type of thing if you wife and kids can stand it. If you don’t have them supporting your idea you will not make it. My family wants to live in a small town where the kids can go to school, have friends, energy and a shower. But I am getting my land deeper in the woods and move back and forth between town life and the Bush.
We where 6 weeks in summer in a small cabin on a island and it worked great with the kids and wife but all of them told me that I can live like that if I want but they want to go back to the small town we live in. Its a good idea if you have the support of your little army with you mate.

Btw I just learned that the used ”coffee beans ground” (sorry don’t know the English word for it) from your coffee is a great substitute for hand cream, I tried it out and its true it makes the hands very smooth and you don’t need to buy hand cream. ;-)

All the best for your adventure, Good luck!

cheers
Abbe

Thanks for the advice Abbe
When i said about letting the kids get older it was for different reasons that i shan't go into here. They live with their mother as we have been divorced for many years.
No, i shall be going by myself unless i can find my "JANE aka tarzan's missus " by then
I will definately be looking into that book though.
Now to get on reading through some of these soap recipes etc as i have to be in bed in an hour for work!. Up at 4am .
Abbe....incidentally, i had no idea you had taken this route in life ( well why would i? ). How interesting
I may well be picking your brains in future then.
I havn't put my finger on the map yet but i prefer cold to hot i think, i don't realy do hot..
So far i am thinking of Canada ( west dawsonesque ) But i may have to marry someone there before they let me in
Realy, this idea only collected to a point in my head the other day after i finished the good life. God i hope i don't go off the idea.

 

[bilko]

There's basic soap-making instructions here.

HTH

Great link but i want to try and get it as natural as possible. Does anyone know about this woodash for making the lye solution?

 

[bilko]

If you pass the fat through a mincer first you'll find it breaks down better. All the rendering does is separate all the little bits of meat, bone and gristle and allow them to be strained off. Put the minced fat into a large pan and ad a little water in the bottom. The water will stop the fat burning before it has a chance to liquify, but will evaporate off quite quickly. Cook it up slowly, it's not like you're frying chips or anything. When the fat is liquid and all the little bits are looking pretty black on the bottom you can strain it off. What you now have is rendered fat. It is also called dripping and is also known as tallow. It's dripping when you fry food with it and tallow when you use it to make candles.

To make soap from it you will also need sodium hydroxide (caustic soda). Let me know if you want specific recipes and methods of making soap and I'll post some here for you.

Eric

Excellent Eric!
I would love the recipe

 

[Toddy]

Have a look at this thread; Eric posted how to make lye and soap.
Cheers,
Toddy

 

[dliwehtfollac]

...........................................

 

[woodtramp]

Hello all,

This is my second post and what a surprise I just was looking in the freezer and uncovered a bunch of dear tallow from last year. Tallow is interesting stuff, so many uses that I will just make a small list and a recipe for rendering it I use.

Equipment needed: Water, 5 qt boiler, a strainer and a heat source and a few pounds of fat......

Word of warning: If the deer fat is dirty with hair the spouse will excommunicate you, it smells very gamey, not bad just very pronounced and will require several boilings to get real clean tallow.
OK, here we go
Step I: Take a pound or two of fat and put it in the bottom of a boiler fill with water and boil for a hour or so adding water if needed.
Step II: Pour of water through the strainer into separate container to separate tallow and water from byproduct. Put container with tallow in refrigerator or out side to cool. Repeat process to byproduct if it still feels fatty to the touch.
Step III: After the tallow has solidified use a fork to separate from water underneath:
Step IV: Wash tallow side that was on the bottom next to the water it will have little pieces of meat and other byproducts attached.
Now you have nice clean ready to use tallow for candles or lamps or whatever you choose: Also the more times you boil it or wash it the less aroma and the cleaner it will burn, can also be used for a lubricant if bears are not a issue.

I harvest a few dear a year and use everything i can off the animal: Harvesting what a euphemism.......LOL

 

[Tengu]

Well.

I have just looked at my tallow candle (used as a flux in stained glass window making) its hard and waxy

and my friend does some odd work for the butcher, doesnt get paid but now the fridge is full of meat (Yours truly bugs her eyes out at sight of friend polishing off 6 chicken portions)

there a tub of dripping and its softer than lard...what gives?

and suet from the ox heart (my fave bit of meat) is different still

 

[spandit]

I just boil the fat/carcass left over from a roast in a pressure cooker. Once it's all broken down (an hour or so - the bones should be soft enough to mash), strain into a bowl and leave to cool. The fat will solidify on top and can just be lifted off. Simple, effective and needs little attention. The liquid left is good stock too!