First, We Have to Render Fat

Scott Kustes on 27 Aug 2007 06:42 pm

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Last week, I realized that I was running a 15 cubic foot freezer to keep about 2 cubic feet of food cold. Not being a fan of wasting electricity (freezers work harder the less frozen stuff there is in them), I decided to consolidate it all into the freezer with the dog food. While doing so, I found several pounds of beef suet that I hadn’t touched since making pemmican for my ski trip in January. So I decided to do something with it….namely, I decided to render it into cooking fat. What you see above is the result of leaving it on the stove for a few hours of melting, occasionally straining it and putting it into the jar. I didn’t take a picture of the leftover bits, but when you render fat, the fat turns to liquid and separates from the protein and other parts leaving pure liquid fat and bits of funky looking stuff (industry terminology). These bits of funky looking stuff went in the trash. Harder core people than I may have some use for them, but I just tossed them without searching for any use for them. I now have 2 jars of delicious, healthful, grass-fed fat for use in cooking. I probably could have squeezed another 1/4-1/2 a jar from the leftovers, but I had been at it for 2.5 hours, bedtime was nearing, and I was tired. This fat has a delicious buttery flavor and its high level of saturation (OH MY GOD, I’M GONNA DIE!) gives it great level of stability in cooking to go with a high melting point.

If you do render fat, make sure you are prepared to clean because this stuff is sticky! Going back to that high melting point, it is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is the stability that it lends to the fat in cooking. The curse is that it does…not…want…to…come…off. I had to run the hot water on full blast to get the fat to melt, give 2 scrubbings of the pot, spoon, and strainer that I used, and lots of work to clean up drips here and there. It was definitely worth it, but it’s not the easiest job in the world.

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Tags: lard, saturated fat, tallow

Filed in Recipes and Cooking 6 Comments so far

6 Responses to “First, We Have to Render Fat”

Anna in San Diego, CA on 27 Aug 2007 at 11:23 pm #

Hi Scott,

I’ve done this with both chicken fat and pork fat (leaf lard, the prized white fat from around the kidney) from animals raised on a nearby hobby farm. I used pretty much the same technique you did, although I have since learned that there is a faster oven method. Older versions of the Joy of Cooking have some directions, but there are great foodie blog posts about rendering, too.

The chicken fat (schmaltz) is great for flavorful roasted potatoes, but alas, I no longer buy or eat potatoes, except for sweet potatoes on occasion. I have heard duck or goose fat is very special.

I use the pork fat (lard) all the time for cooking (though leaf lard is exceptional in pastries and other baked goods, but I hardly bake anymore). I store the extra jars in the freezer. The little brown protein bits left over are cracklings, and fried very crisp with some salt, they make great crouton-type things for topping salads. My German friend wants some cracklings the next time I render so she can have a childhood favorite treat made with the cracklings and lard mixed, spread on bread.

One of the things I enjoyed most about reading Cold Mountain was the descriptions of food preparation, preservation, and all the fat they used. Nothing went to waste. If the fat wasn’t used for food, it was made into soap. My great grandmother did the same.

Your post reminded me that I have two batches of cheek lard that need to be rendered, or if there is enough meat on it, I’ll cure it into bacon.

If you try lard, you’ll find that the lower saturation (almost 50% monosaturated) means that cleanup is easier than tallow. Then again, I am lazy about pans and I run them through the dishwasher usually; that takes care of any grease.
jm_funk on 28 Aug 2007 at 9:57 am #

Hi Scott,

Love the blog. I’ve been wanting to make pemmican for a while now. Could you tell me how you made yours and how did you get the suet?

Thanks
Joe.
Scott Kustes on 28 Aug 2007 at 5:45 pm #

Hey Anna,
Cracklings sound quite interesting. What is the faster oven method that you know of? I’d be interested in not spending quite so much time at it next time. And where do you get leaf lard?

Jim,
Thanks for stopping by. First, the suet…I ordered it from Slanker’s Grass-Fed Meats as part of a much larger order. To make the pemmican, I first made beef jerky in my dehydrator, then dropped it into a chopper and turned it to dust. I also dried some blueberries and threw in some almonds with the beef jerky (I think I made a pound of jerky, but it’s been awhile, so I can’t recall exactly). After mixing all of that together, I put it into a 9×9 pan and poured the melted fat over it until it was all good and coated. I poured a bit much so I had a layer of fat on top of the bars, but it was still good. I think next time I might add a touch of honey or some seasoning to give it some more flavor because it was kind of bland. Hope that helps!

Cheers
Scott
Anna in San Diego, CA on 29 Aug 2007 at 1:44 am #

Hi Scott,

This food blog has a great description of rendering lard including photos- An Obession with Food.

http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/2006_01_01_blog-archive.html#113709378997673043

January 12, 2006 is the date of the post. The archives were behaving a little funny when I looked it up, so you might have to scroll down. Or find it under Favorite Posts on upper right area of blog.

Be sure to dry your lard as described before remelting to pour into jars. I didn’t the first time and there was moisture under the solidified fat of one jar (the last jar filled) and it eventualy molded after sitting out on the counter a while. The other jars that had no water at all in them were fine.

This link uses the oven method:
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/makeyourownlard

Here’s another link I bookmarked.
http://www.easyfunschool.com/article1141.html

Also, I found that wide mouth pint canning jars worked well. I did have one non-canning jar with “shoulders” break in the freezer. I probably filled it too much and it expanded. Or my kid dropped it when the freezer door opened and he put it back in :-).

Leaf lard isn’t from the pig back, but from around the kidney. It is whiter and creamier and prized for pastry baking. I got mine from a little local “hobby” farm (non-commercial) that I buy meat, poultry, eggs, and fresh goat milk from. They sort of sell by word of mouth (& deliver!!!). When they told me they were having some hogs processed I asked to have it saved for me (usually no one wants it). I also got the liver and heart for my homemade raw cat food, but we ate some of the liver for dinner and it was quite good. Inexpensive, too. I’d never get liver from the supermarket for our dinner.

I also have a pretty good source in the European (German) style meat market near us. They don’t have organic or grass fed meat unfortunately, but they are a California licensed small processing facility and they do know how to handle meat. they pick up and process animals after the livestock auctions at the county fair. You may have such a facility near you with any luck.

You can also use the cheek (jowl) fat to render if you can get it. It sometimes has enough streaky meat that it can be cured into bacon, too (that’s my next project).

I have some other meat and cookbooks with rendering info if you are interesting in looking up more variations.

Have fun. The best part, though, is the look on people’s faces when you mention you use lard. Priceless.
Scott Kustes on 29 Aug 2007 at 6:06 pm #

Thanks Anna! I’m reading those links…lots of good info there. I also just contacted two pastured pork producers in my area to inquire about a) buying pork and beef from them and b) getting lard from them. I need to get some canning jars, but this time I just used a couple of old jars I had around the house to store the tallow. At the rate I’m using this tallow, I imagine it’s going to disappear fairly quickly…it’s just that tasty that I’m using it for most of my cooking.

Here is a link I read recently about making your own bacon: http://www.bsbrewing.com/blog/?p=261 (language can be a bit raw in other posts, but I haven’t seen anything not work-safe yet) Just reading it makes my mouth water. Is there any more perfect food than bacon? The delicious fat with the salty-sweet goodness of the cure.

As for telling people I cook with lard, most of the people that know me already think I’m odd, so the look probably wouldn’t be much different from the “you don’t eat bread?!” look and the “you don’t eat sugar?!” look. Isn’t it fun having your own little health secrets that the rest of the world thinks are wrong?
Modern Forager » Blog Archive » Carbs and Fatty Liver on 22 Sep 2007 at 11:26 am #

[...] body is screaming for. Meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, good oils (like olive, coconut, and palm), grass-fed animal fats, and enough fruit, tubers, and squashes to fuel your activity levels will lead you to optimal [...]

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