# animal fats & how to clean, save & reuse them



## kappydell

long post advisory! this is a shortened version of an article I wrote for a mag, 
someone might find it useful. 

FATS – TOO VALUABLE TO WASTE!
kappydell
Fats have developed a bad reputation in culinary circles. Actually, fats are vital to repair and nourish fatty tissues, yield energy, absorb and utilize fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K, maintain body heat, and promote the flow of pancreatic and bile juices for good digestion and elimination. Lack of fat in the diet leads to malnutrition predisposing folks to diseases. Children NEED animal fats in their diet to develop and grow properly. Fats are also a concentrated source of calories, and ‘stick to the ribs’ to keep hunger at bay and blood sugar levels more stable. Only when sedentary lifestyles require the curtailment of calories are fats so reviled. 

So you should not waste this valuable resource. If you don’t need the fats for food, it is useful in other ways. Pets, especially outdoor pets, will enjoy its ability to keep them warm and it will make their coats shine. Fats can be used to make soap, candles, liniments, bird feeding cakes, and for lubrication (axle grease need not be inorganic) and waterproofing. 

I like to keep some kinds of fats separate from others depending on what I plan to use them for. Chicken, turkey and goose fat are soft and mild and can be used in direct substitution for shortening in baking. Pork fat (lard) still makes the best pie crusts and is a favorite fat for frying. Beef tallow also has a high tolerance for heat and makes excellent frying for French fries. Deer tallow is used in waterproofing buckskins and other things, and the lanolin in it and mutton fat, softens and protects skin from weathering.

To store fats they should be rendered. To render it is to melt it down so only the fat is stored, not any connective tissue. That connective tissue is what cracklings are made of. Cracklings are very good used measure for measure for fat in cornbreads adding a crunch and indescribable flavor. They also are good to season a mess of greens or green beans.

The direct method of rendering fat is to chop the fat up fine, put it in a pot (a double boiler is preferable) and cook over low heat until all the fat melts out of the cracklings. Strain the melted fat through a cloth that was wrung out in hot water. Reheat the strained fat to sterilize it, and free out any moisture, then store it. If you want to can it, wash and heat up a jar in the oven, scald a lid by pouring boiling water over it and letting it sit in the water until used. When the fat is liquid, pour hot into the hot jar, up to ¼ inch headspace, put on a hot and freshly dried lid, and close it up. As it cools it will seal, and will store in a cool place a long time. 

The water method is used both to render mixed fats, and clarify fats that have bits of tissue on them or rise up from refrigerated soups and are chucked into the fat pail. You do not need a double boiler to melt fat with an equal amount of water over medium heat. Let it cool, then refrigerate. Remove the cake that rises to the top, scrape off any impurities that are stuck to the underside of the cake, and then reheat to can it. This works to clean fats saved from soups, gravies, salt meat, or strongly flavored fats from mutton, duck or goose. When you remelt the strong flavored fats, remelt it with an equal amount of beef suet or lard to make it milder for table use.

If you use fats for deep frying, then add a few slices raw potato when you are done frying. Let the potato stay in the fat until it cools. Remove the potato, strain the fat, and let it harden. The potato absorbs any strong odors and you can re-use the fat.

Out of an old WWI food rationing recipe book comes several ways to flavor up fats for use in place of butter or olive oil for pan-frying foods. To 1 pound of cleaned, mild fats add one of the following combinations:

1)1 slice onion (½ inch thick and 2 inches in diameter), 2 bay leaves, 
1 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. Render together in a double boiler and strain
out bay leaf and onion remains. Use for cooking.

2) 2 tsp thyme (fresh, chopped), 1 slice onion (½ inch thick and 2 inches
in diameter, 1 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. Render together same as #1.	

3) 1 tsp thyme (dried), 1 tsp marjoram (dried) ½ tsp rubbed sage, 1/8 tsp 
pepper. Render together as for #1

Use these flavored fats in the following (and add your own ideas as well):
1) Fry eggs for breakfast
2) Dredge pieces of meat in flour, sauté in flavored fat, then braise over low 
heat until cooked, or use in slow cooker (good for tough cuts)
3) Pan fry onions, carrots, celery, etc to add to casseroles, or as a side dish
4) Pan fry potatoes, hash browns, or any savory food
5) Pan fry rice for first step in making pilaf
6) Use to stir fry foods
7) Mix flour into melted fat and make gravy or sauces
8) Pan fry fish, chicken, breaded vegetables
9) Melt, toss with squares of dry bread for croutons
10) You can pan-fry any meat in its own type of fat. Just cut off a piece, melt it in the fry pan (med. heat), and put in the meat.

Unflavored, cleaned fats can be used to:
1) Melt and add as fat to pancake recipes, biscuits, waffles, and other quick breads that call for oil or melted butter
2) Melt and use as baking fat in breads
3) Use in cake recipes – Use measure for measure. Increase the salt slightly,
Mix the dry ingredients, and cream the fat with 3/4ths of the sugar. Add
1/4th the flour mixture. Combine milk and other liquid ingredients. Alternate
liquid mixture with flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Beat egg
whites with the last 1/4th of the sugar until stiff, then fold into the 
batter. Bake as usual. (Good with chicken fat or lard.)
4) In pie crusts, chill the fat before using so it is easier to cut into 
the dry ingredients. Use 1/4th cup fat for every 1 cup flour 
(decreased slightly from original recipes)
5) Chocolate or Spice cakes and cookies are better to conceal the 
pronounced flavor from saved fats. If used in light cakes, lemon 
flavor helps tone it down.
Poultry fat makes tender cakes, but they don’t rise very high, 
hence the beating of the egg whites to add volume (see #3 
above).
6) Chill fat to make it hard as possible. Cut into dry ingredients for 
biscuits.

As you can see from these old World War One and World War Two recipes, saved fat is quite versatile. You can use it for other things as well. Here are some ‘recipes’ I have found interesting. 

TO MAKE SOAP 
1 can lye (12 oz) 
4 cups cold water
6 lb fat
In enamel or non-aluminum pot, add lye to water. Separately melt fat; hen both are about room temperature (I just feel the outside of the pots and when they are both about the same) add fat to lye
water. Fat should still be liquid. Stir about 20 min constantly until consistency of mashed honey. For whiter soap add 2 TB borax. If stirred thoroughly, this should make a floating soap. Pour into a mold, let set 24 hours covered. Uncover, and if it iss firm, turn out on newspapers and cut into bars with a sharp knife. If it is not firm, cover and let sit another 24 hours. Use butter tubs or glass cake pans as molds. 

TO MAKE SUET OR FAT CAKES FOR BIRDS
Melt fat. Stir in any combination of the following to make cakes to feed the birds in winter. They
enjoy it and it helps them keep warm. Stir in to desired thickness, then make into cakes.
Cornmeal, ground grits, dry crumbs Bird seed blends 
Peanut butter (for part of the fat) Chopped nuts, sunflower seeds in shell
Chopped dried fruits (raisins, apples, cranberries)
Let cool to harden. They will get nicely hard outdoors in cool weather.


WATERPROOF BOOT DRESSING FOR LEATHER BOOTS
Combine equal parts:
Beeswax Neats-foot oil (also a deer by-product)
Tallow (deer fat)
Warm and melt together, and apply to leather while hot. It will waterproof and preserve leather hunting boots. 

RUSH LIGHTS (an early Colonial lighting system used when candles were unavailable)
Cattail stems with brown part intact Melted fat, any kind
Melt the fat carefully to avoid burning. Meanwhile, in a shallow baking pan or dish, align cattail stalks, cutting off stems to fit inside pan, leaving brown parts intact. It helps to alternate stems to brown parts, you can get more in the pan. Pour melted fat in to cover cattails completely. The tails will absorb the fat so keep it topped up if need be. When they have absorbed all they will take, let the fat cool until you can handle the stem parts of the cattails. Remove and hold or tie upside down to let excess fat drip back into the pan. Wipe off the stem but carefully so you don’t break it. When cool, keep in a cool place, and keep in a plastic or wax-paper lined box in case some fat rubs off. To use, the colonials had a clip type holder (like a small electrical clip) attached to a stand. Put a dish under to catch drips, just as a ‘mess precaution’. 

TALLOW CANDLES
Tallow candles were made from tallow either hand-dipped or in candle molds, just as wax candles are used today. They did become soft if stored in a warm place, and some did not like their smell, if the fat was not cleaned before making them. They also burn faster than wax candles, and put out more smoke.


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## Davarm

Another good one, and fat has gotten a bum wrap recently. The human body is designed to consume animal fats, lard-tallow-butter..., it is the newer hydrogenated fats that the body cant handle. I have cut out the trans-fats and started eating lard, butter and other unrefined/processed fats so unpopular today, and NO my cholesterol is not high. 7 years ago I had a diabetes related heart attack and had a cholesterol that was too high to calculate and since I have adopted a traditional(pre WWII) diet my "total cholesterol" has dropped to under 100. Animal fats are good, use them.

I save all used and unwanted fats to include used cooking oil, bacon fat and anything that would go down most drains and use them for soap making, boot dressings and to coat garden tools when not being used. Have used bacon grease to treat and waterproof boots since I was a kid, just have to keep the footwear out of the reach of the dogs.

Keep em coming.


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## *Andi

TALLOW CANDLES
Tallow candles were made from tallow either hand-dipped or in candle molds, just as wax candles are used today. They did become soft if stored in a warm place, and some did not like their smell, if the fat was not cleaned before making them. They also burn faster than wax candles, and put out more smoke...

They are also interesting to make. :2thumb: Take a walk into the past and ~ by the way ~they are better than sitting in the dark. (practice now. )


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## Davarm

I've heard that adding salt to the tallow and keeping the wicks well trimmed will help reduce the smoke considerably in tallow candles, the salt is also supposed to help preserve the tallow and keep it from going rancid quite as fast-kinda like salt in butter.

Dont know if their is any truth in this claim, has anyone heard of this?


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## *Andi

Davarm said:


> I've heard that adding salt to the tallow and keeping the wicks well trimmed will help reduce the smoke considerably in tallow candles, the salt is also supposed to help preserve the tallow and keep it from going rancid quite as fast-kinda like salt in butter.
> 
> Dont know if their is any truth in this claim, has anyone heard of this?


Yes, salt can be added when you render the fat. Some recipes calls for 1T salt per 1 pound tallow.

I think it all comes down to how well you render the fats . (but that is just me )


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## kappydell

*Andi said:


> Yes, salt can be added when you render the fat. Some recipes calls for 1T salt per 1 pound tallow.
> 
> I think it all comes down to how well you render the fats . (but that is just me )


You are right on the money there. Rendering the fats to get out as many impurities as possible helps make less smelly candles & brighter ones. With some fats it might take 2-3 renderings using the water method before they are good and clean.


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## Emerald

Lard is better for you, but as with all things.. in moderation.. hubbys levels went down when I switched over to real butter/real lard/olive oil.. none of the criscos or margarine here.
But if you are going to go and get your own pig fat to make your own lard be aware that there are two types of fat on a pig... All is okay but personally I like the leaf lard(fat deposits that are roughly leaf shaped that are from the inside of the pig near the kidneys and liver) it is a "finer" fat that makes a very delicate lard that is the best for making pastry/pie dough/biscuits. All the rest is just as good but once you render out your lard from a pig(our family used to do this every fall and I helped with the lard part) you will be able to tell the differences.
My gran wasn't as fond of lard as she was of bacon grease tho! There were also times where gran would take some of the lard and "simmer/lightly boil" it in a gallon of water in a huge pot.. then put it out in the garage to get cold(usually she did this only in winter) and then would take the "cleaned" lard off the top of the water and if it wasn't "clean enuf" she would do it again. It made a very "unporky" lard that she used to fry chicken.

We used to put the hot rendered lard in mason jars with simmered clean lids and rings and stored them in the coldest part of the basement here. or in the bottom of the fridge. they hardly ever got rancid.. I do remember one going bad but it was in our camper and was not removed after deer camp and it was the next summer... peeee--eewww! But the darn dog loved it.


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## Possumfam

We rendered lard last year, some in quart jars, some in pint. My problem is, when I get down to that last inch, it begins to mold. I have found a wierd alternate use for this moldy inch. First I scrape off the mold, transfer to a smaller jar to use easier. Then it's used as a type of goo gone/goof off. I only use it to remove the gummy residue from the labels on commercial jars, but it's great. I've marked it so that it is not used for cooking. Hmmm...wonder if this old lard is still usable for soap making?? Oh, Kappydell...where are you???


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## diannamarsolek

yep i use ALL my old fats animal and plant to make soap and pet food the cat dont get much but it makes one hell of allot of differences in the winter win the hunting sucks for him also it works for a short time as oil in machines


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## kappydell

Im here, just not as often....boil it to kill any germs that might affect the soap, then proceed as usual. Once you boil the fat its just a little more debris in the fat....


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