Rendering Beef Fat

Re-posted from my old blog

So ever since my mother made hot processed soap with her own rendered fat I've been wanting to try it for myself and today I finally had the time to render my fat and make my soap, so I'm blogging the process here for anyone else who has an interest. Since the whole process is fairly long I will blog them in two separate posts - one for the process of rendering fat and the other for hot processed soap.

What you will need:

Large saucepan

Beef Fat (Also known as Beef Suet)

Wooden Spoon

Cheesecloth (I use a 100% Cotton tea towel from spotlight)

Metal Colander

5 cup glass jug (if you are rendering 2kg of fat)

First things first, get your fat! You may have your own from butchering a cow or you may want to buy it from your butcher. I bought mine from my local butcher for $1.50/kg and asked for 2kg - this will generally be enough for any at home soap making venture you're doing. If your butcher is not sure what you're asking for then ask specifically for beef suet - it's the same thing.

Now that you have your fat chop it into chunks about ice cube size. Some people recommend refrigeration before cutting it up so that it is easier to chop, if you buy it from your butcher it's generally frozen so just let it thaw a little and then start chopping. I rendered mine from frozen and it turned out beautiful!

Place your fat chunks into a saucepan and put the saucepan on a hotplate over low heat.

Fat chunks in the Saucepan ready to be rendered

After a little while your fat should start "melting" with liquid forming underneath your fat chunks. Give the fat a little stir when this happens and try and squash the chunkier pieces of fat into smaller pieces.

The fat beginning to render. Notice the liquid beginning to form underneath the fat chunks as it melts.

Rendering fat is going to take anywhere from 1-2 hours so you need a bit of patience for this, however after you find the first liquid under your fat chunks you only really have to take a look at it every 15 minutes and give it a little stir while occasionally breaking up the larger fat chunks into smaller pieces with your wooden spoon.

After about an hour of stirring over low heat. Notice the "floaties"

After about an hour you will start to notice that less of the fat melts and more "floaties" come to the top of your liquid. This is normal, the impurities in your fat will float to the top so that you can strain them off later.

The finished rendering. Notice all that is left are the "floaties" and the rendered fat.

My fat took approximately 2 hours to render and when it was done it was a clear liquid with all my impurities floating on the top of the liquid and no fat left to melt. You will be able to tell your endpoint of your render when there is no change in the amount of "floaties" on top of your liquid.

At this point take your saucepan off the stove and let it cool down a lot before you try and strain out the impurities.. My rendered fat was sitting at 113°C (approx 235°F) when I took it off the stove and I waited until it was down to about 80°C (approx 176°F) before I started straining. Please note however that I have worked in hospitality for a lot of years so while 80° is cool enough for me to handle you may want to let it cool down to a nice 50°C (122°F) before you start straining it.

Straining the impurities out of the tallow.

Using the cheesecloth sitting in the metal colander carefully strain the impurities out and let the tallow strain into the glass jug. Note that both glass and metal are used instead of plastic because of the high temperature of the rendered fat. There is every chance you could melt plastic working at these temperatures - especially cheap plastic.

The impurities strained out of the tallow

Your strained tallow should be clear (not colourless - just clear) and free of impurities.

Rendered fat (Tallow now) clear and impurity free

You can let your tallow cool until it turns white and use it to make soap or you can let it cool to about 50°C (122°F) and still use it for soap making (this also means you don't have to reheat it). I have used it at the 50°C temperature and my hot processed soap has turned out fine. 

Happy Rendering!

xx mattimay