Rendering lard and tallow

In short

• Slow and low: oven at 100–120 °C (210–250 °F), the hob on its lowest setting. Fat that smokes is overheated.
• Wet rendering (with water) gives a paler fat with a milder smell, but the water must afterwards be removed completely.
• From 1 kg of beef suet you get roughly 0.8 kg of clean tallow; from pork back fat and leaf fat 0.65–0.75 kg of lard.
• Tallow for soap and candles is washed with water and salt two or three times.
• Finished fat water-free, strained, dark and cold; goose and chicken fat in the fridge.
• Never water on burning fat. A lid and a fire extinguisher always within reach.

What's inside

Chapters

1. What is rendered and what you get
2. Dry and wet rendering
3. Where and in what to render
4. Beef tallow
5. Mutton and goat tallow
6. Goose, duck and chicken fat
7. Cleaning tallow and fat
8. Rancid and old fat
9. Keeping times and packing
10. Suet balls for birds
11. Safety when rendering
12. Most common mistakes
13. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Rendering calendar
• Yield calculator
• Cleaning calculator
• Rendering log
• Fat and tallow inventory
• Labels