help making tallow

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/24/02 9:58:13 AM Central Standard Time,

elqabbany@... writes:

> I recently butchered a ram and I tried making tallow

> from the fat, with very little success.

>

> I took all the excess fat I could find (such as from

> around the kidneys, the membranous fat sack that

> surrounds the gut, and the occasional large clumps of

> fat on the meat) and put it in a pot. When I tried

> melting it (on low heat), it looked like it was

> starting to brown (rather than melt). So I added a

> bunch of water and tried to boil it in the hope that

> most of the fat would melt in the water. While some

> did, which I'll separate when it cools, most didn't.

>

> I can think of two possible reasons why this didn't

> work:

>

> 1. Maybe I should grind the fat next time? Will

> pulverising it in a food processor do the job?

> 2. Should I only use pure fat next time (as opposed

> to fat that is attached to a membrane)? What should I

> do with the fatty sack around the animal's stomach?

>

Never tried it with a ram but we've done lots of pork lard and beef tallow.

What we do is

1. Get every bit of fat, even that with some meat on it. We do leave the

organs out.

2. Grind the fat in the grinder (this isn't necessary but as we are making

craklin's it works for us.

3. Put a little water into the bottom of the kettle, add ground up fat and

meat and heat. I do about 2 five gallon buckets of fat at a time and it

takes somewhere around 2-3 hours.

4. Once the meat (cracklin's) begins to settle to the bottom and the fat

looks clear on top I begin to scoop out the cracklin's. I put a very used

cheesecloth in a strainer which is in a five gallon bucket and scoop into it.

The cracklin's then go into a canning jar and I put the lid on tight.

5. When I've got a good portion of the cracklin's out of the way I can use a

bigger scoop to get the rest of the lard or tallow out but I still do strain

it to be sure there's no meat in it.

6. All that's left is for the fat to cool. We store ours in the pantry and

keep a 5 gallon bucket in the kitchen which we almost use up in a year's

time.

Hope that helps.

Belinda

LaBelle Acres

www.labelleacres.com

[Guest guest]

I recently butchered a ram and I tried making tallow

from the fat, with very little success.

I took all the excess fat I could find (such as from

around the kidneys, the membranous fat sack that

surrounds the gut, and the occasional large clumps of

fat on the meat) and put it in a pot. When I tried

melting it (on low heat), it looked like it was

starting to brown (rather than melt). So I added a

bunch of water and tried to boil it in the hope that

most of the fat would melt in the water. While some

did, which I'll separate when it cools, most didn't.

I can think of two possible reasons why this didn't

work:

1. Maybe I should grind the fat next time? Will

pulverising it in a food processor do the job?

2. Should I only use pure fat next time (as opposed

to fat that is attached to a membrane)? What should I

do with the fatty sack around the animal's stomach?

I tried following this:

http://hospice.xtn.net/soaptal.htm

but the very first step, which is to melt the fat,

failed.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Moustafa

__________________________________________________