Rendering lard and tallow, step by step
Interactive lesson: render tallow and fat in the oven or with water, lift off the cake, wash tallow for soap and candles, and store fat free of water and rancidity.
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The whole lesson as text
1. Raw material
On a homestead fat isn't thrown away: every piece of fat gives something useful.
- Kidney suet — White, crumbly sheets around the kidneys. Almost pure fat with a mild smell: from 1 kg you get roughly 0.8 kg of tallow.
- A healthy animal — Pork fat and game fat only with a negative Trichinella result. Tallow from an animal that died, was ill or was treated with a medicine that has a withdrawal period goes neither into the kitchen nor to the birds.
- Chop it up — Cut the raw material into 1–2 cm cubes or mince it on the coarse plate (8–10 mm).
- Poultry skin — Chicken skin and fat give 0.4–0.6 kg of fat per kilogram and small cracklings. Poultry fat goes rancid faster than pork or beef fat.
Why: Clean kidney fat and suet give the most fat, fatty trimmings and skin the least. Fat and tallow come from the same animal as the meat, so the same health rules apply.
- Pork back fat at the pig killing, čvarci and white leaf lard are in module H41-05 Čvarci (pork scratchings) and lard.
- Dry rendering gives a more yellow fat with cracklings, wet rendering a whiter fat with a milder smell.
2. In the oven
The easiest way for 1 to 5 kg of raw material: no constant stirring and no spitting.
- Tin and a little water — The chopped raw material in a deep tin or pot, with a spoonful or two of water in the bottom so it doesn't catch.
- Oven 100–120 °C — Uncovered (210–250 °F). Rendering takes 3–6 hours, depending on the amount and the size of the pieces.
- Pour off every 30–45 min — Pour off the melted fat regularly, so it doesn't overheat with the leftovers.
- Strain through muslin — At the end strain everything through a sieve and muslin into a clean, warm, dry container.
Why: Slow and low: fat that smokes is overheated. On a high heat fat darkens and burns.
- Pour off the first, clearest fat separately: it is the finest.
- For white fat, stop while the leftovers are pale. For cracklings, let them brown.
3. Wet rendering · Locked
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4. Tallow and poultry fat · Locked
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5. Tallow for soap and candles · Locked
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6. Storage and safety · Locked
Buy the Rendering lard and tallow module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.