Source of true mutton suet for tallow making.

[tombear]

At the Monmouth show, only a couple of days before we bugged out of South Wales just as the sun came out..., the wife discovered a helpful source of the true mutton suet I most want for tallow making. Unfortunately in the time between us asking and us going he could collect only a couple of pounds. Anyroad, James the Butchers in Raglan village is a excellent butcher and runs the local abattoir and with a bit of warning can probably supply any amount.


Buying just a small amount wasn't cheep , £3 for two pound or there abouts but I'm pretty sure that would come down if you were getting a decent amount, I could do with anything between 10 and 20 lb myself but that will involve some complex phone work and the inlaws cooperation.

When we have finished unpacking, cleaning kit and stocking the washing ill process the raw suet. We did collect a double hand span of soft rushes from our favourite site but this year they were pretty poor thin things so since we can get them fresh up here we dumped them in the compost heap as the car was so full that herself had to dump two carriers of Denby and killer jars she got in charity shops for her folks to bring over when they next visit.

To be honest it is probably too good to burn until I secure a larger stock but at least I can now get the stuff after several years not being able. It will be excellent for lotions and potions.

atb

Tom

 

[FGYT]

Mutton is difficult to get as you need to wait 2 yrs to get your money out of the sheep over a few months if its Lamb

and expensive it cost over twice as much to slaughter a Sheep over 2yrs as a lamb as lots of extra tests have to be done on every individual

Hogget 1-2yr old is in the middle not so long to grow on and cheaper testing

 

[ozzy1977]

Apart from the age, is there any difference in the fat from the beasts?

 

[HillBill]

Sheep tallow is also more liquid than solid at room temp, unlike beef tallow, which stays set. I've been making a hell of a lot of beef tallow over the last few weeks, probably got 15kg stored atm.

Lotions and potions? lol, liquid tallow should be good then.

Have a word with a slaughterhouse to see if you can source some... thats what i have done...

 

[tombear]

Er you must be doing something wrong with your mutton tallow as I've found it to be considersbly harder than beef and so agree all the historical sources. I've mutton tallow candles that when left next to a south facing window for a couple of years merely felt a little greasiest to the touch in the summer. They were made from just the boiled up scraps of lamb fat rather than the suet from around the kidneys of fully grown sheep. In the tallow candle factories beef fat was added to the mutton as a cheap alternative for lower quality candles.


ATB

Tom

 

[HillBill]

When i was doing a lot of research about making Pemmican, everything said don't use Sheep tallow, as its not suitable due to the reason i gave. Well, it says it melts at a much lower temp... though on re reading it says lamb fat.. so perhaps that different to mutton suet?

 

[tombear]

Oh yeah, mutton suets wonderful stuff, none of the local abattoirs i contacted would deal in relatively small amounts. The chap I got my first lot from was a farmer who also did the local slaughtering but tragically he died at a early age not long after. Back in the 18th and early 19th the very best tallow supposedly came from elderly ewes, the older the better, just the fat around the internal organs. I cheat somewhat and boil it with about a table spoon of salt for every pound of fat and scraps, probably with more water than is efficient but I am trying to get the very best, clean tallow I can and am pretty wasteful with regards to washing off the gooey bits and reboiling.

the one thing I have found is that candles made from it really don't like draughts and dribble like mad given a chance. Very Unseen University but a bugger to clean off your medieval open fronted lantern as one kind tester found out ( sorry ! ) I've 40 or 60 in the Shed fridge if anyone wants to try any, there's some pure mutton fat, some 50/50 sheep and cow, some tallow coated in beeswax a la Fountains Abbey and some ( my memory is shot) with various sub 20% amounts of some stuff that makes the tallow go about as hard as paraffin wax but I'm damned if I can remember what it's called. A palm derivative? It will come back to me. Some have hand made flax linen wicks, some hand plaited cotton flat wicks and some post 1820s style self consuming cotton wicks. Some treated with boric acid and salt, some not.

been out all day so not had a chance to play with the suet yet. Did get some major scores at the charity shops I've not been to in 18 days. Unworn Rohans for 6.99 for the middle son and a bunch of other new walking trousers with 28 inch waists for the other two, for £3.50 a pop! Some army stores must have just donated them but I digress.

Atb

Tom

 

[HillBill]

You boiled your tallow in water? And skim it i assume?

I just render it in a big cast iron pot, without water. Low heat for about 3 hours, this keeps the good stuff in the fat (omega 3/vit c etc) as the cows are grass fed... the tallow comes out the colour of butter, smells lovely. I skim out all the cracklings and then pour it through a sieve lined with 3 layers of muslin. Really clean pure stuff.

The slaughterhouse where i get my suet from, also do sheep... i'll have a word with the guy i share my allotments with who works there, to see if i can get any decent stuff.

If you can remember what you add to the tallow to make it harder, let me know please as i plan to make candles from this stuff, and I'm not so sure its completely hard enough at room temp.

Goot find at the charity shop mate

 

[Macaroon]

@ tombear; You're dead right about Neil James, the butchers in Raglan. As good a bit of meat as I've ever eaten and not that much more expensive than elsewhere; it's one of the great joys of living in this area, although I would drive a fair way to buy my meat there.

There ain't many left like this, sadly :-(

 

[tombear]

yup the mans a true Gent, he seamed to know everyone who came in and was very pleasent to the wife with her strange requests.

I minced the fat, dropped it in about 3 pints of water for every pound of fat and table spoon of salt, boiled the lot for several hours, skiming out the bits of meat and gristle, I then leave it to cool, when the tallows solid I pull the slab of waxy tallow off the top and rinse any goo off the bottom of it then repeat the process but when its all bubbling I pour the lot through a sieve lined with muslin or kitchen paper and rinse through with boiling water. I leave it to cool and what forms on top of the water is the finished article.

Sorry i was being lazy, i looked in the candle making stuff and its Palm Stearin

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Natural-P...ing-Natural-Candle-Wax-Additive-/280838426830

I did a bit of experimenting when I was making some No.10 size tallow candles for the COOP museums in Rochdales first products display that had to stand being under the lights and I went to 20% and those suckers were as hard as parafin. Not very cost effective going that high but they wanted them to last years.

ATB

Tom

 

[HillBill]

Thanks for the link and the info.

Does this still allow the tallow to be used to cook with and remain edible?

 

[tombear]

Yup, the processed palm stearin is edible. What messes my stuff up is the tendency to chuck beeswax candle stubs into the melting pot when I am doing candles or dips. Wouldnt be toxic but wouldnt add to the taste.

Was the old Artic issue edible candles pure Stearin? I think they were.

ATB

Tom

 

[tombear]

Finally got a moment to render the suet into tallow, it was boiled up in salty water 3 times and filtered twice. Compared to previous sessions I lost suprising little weight of fat. The suet was pleasantly hard to cut up and resistant to boiling, just to make 1 lb 14 oz took about 4 hrs on a rolling boil and the use of a hand blender half way through. That bodes well for the hardness of the candles.

I'll leave it for a few days to dry out then bag, label and freeze it for future use. Despite having a fridge full I'm tempted to make a couple of candles to test them. If there's any decent soft rushes about ill see what sort of dips it makes. I've told the Marcher Stuarts living history group we kept bumping into that I'd make them some rushlights to replace the commercial wax tapers they have been using.

atb

Tom