How to Render Tallow

Author: Sinclair A. Sheers Published on: September 4, 2001

I make laundry soap from soap made from tallow. Tallow is beef fat. Before making tallow soap, you need to render, or purify the tallow.

Equipment
beef fat, preferably suet
a big pot
about one gallon of water per pound of fat
3 T salt
a fine mesh strainer, like an old pair of pantyhose
3 T baking soda

To render tallow, first take beef fat and cut off anything that does not look like fat. If you can, get suet. Suet is beef fat from around the kidneys. It makes a harder bar than regular beef fat. Chop the fat into little pieces or grind it. Put the fat into a pot and cover it with water. Add a few tablespoons of salt. Boil it for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove it from the heat and let it cool. Strain it (an old pair of pantyhose makes a great strainer). Cover it and refrigerate it until the top layer hardens, probably overnight. This solid top layer is the tallow. Take it, discard the rest, and render it again.

The second time you render your tallow, take the solid layer, put it into the pot, add enough water to cover it, and add a few tablespoons of baking soda, not salt this time. Boil it for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove it from the heat. let cool. Strain. Put it into the fridge. When the top layer solidifies, discard everything else. Now you're ready to use this rendered tallow to make soap. Store the tallow in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to use it.

If you don't feel like doing all this work, you can buy tallow, already rendered and ready to use in soap, from http://starrvillesoapworks.com/.