Quickest way to render tallow in a few easy steps

Do you want to know the quickest way to render tallow? There are many ways on how to render tallow. Some ways to render tallow will take a few hours, some all day and my way which takes the least amount of time, in my opinion. This is my quickest and easiest way to render tallow for soap making or for cooking. I use a high heat pressure canner.

The best types of fat to use for making tallow

Let’s talk about the different types of fat that you can use to make tallow.  For the longest time, I got all my fat from my local grocery store. A few years back, we found a local butcher that is when I realized there is a difference a big difference in fat.  The reason for the difference in fat from the grocery store versus the one from the slaughterhouse is huge.

The fat from the grocery store is trimmed from all sections of the muscle. Most of the time, the beef was not grass-fed nor free of antibiotics. At the local butcher shop, I can ask particularly for kidney-fat.

Grass-fed kidney fat for making tallow

The beef fat that we get from the local butcher is only kidney fat and the cows were locally grass-fed.  The kidney fat is a yellow color fat and very creamy like butter.  Now that I have been introduced to grass-fed kidney fat, I will never use local grocery store fat ever again.  The difference can be shown and felt in the soap when it is made with kidney fat too.  We bartered 30 bars of soap for a 55-gallon drum of kidney fat. I think that’s a very good deal!

Instructions for rendering tallow

• First, ensure as much meat is removed from the fat.
• Second, partially freeze the fat, this makes for cutting it more easily.
• Third, cube the fat into small cubes. The smaller the cubes, the faster it will render. For years I have used a meat grinder that I also use for making deer sausage.
• By grinding the partially frozen fat, the rendering time is cut in half.

Using a pressure-cooker in making tallow

• Begin by putting the cubes or ground fat in an 8-quart pressure cooker. Fill no more than ⅔ of the up.
• Add hot water to the fill line in the pot liner.
• We used an instant on-demand hot water from Home Depot to expedite the process even faster.  If your pressure cooker has temperature settings, I would recommend putting it on high for 20 minutes providing the fat is very small or run through the grinder.
• This particular pressure cooker does not have any temperature settings. Set the control knob to 20 minutes.
• NOTE: The pressure cooker I use for this is higher heat than the Instant Pot. If I use the Instant Pot, it takes an hour or more.

Filtering the fat into liquid gold

Begin the next process by manually releasing the pressure after the 20 minutes are completed. Remove the lid.  Do not do anything at this point, let the oil, water, and meat separate for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Second, drain through fine mesh sifter.  This will remove any of the cracklings or fat that cooked. It will look like hamburger meat that you may feed to your animals. Use caution and hand protection when removing the inner part from the pressure cooker.

At this point, the oil and the water should separate.  Using a ladle, scoop the oil that floats on the top and pour it into a glass mason jar.  When the water starts mixing with the oil, you will need to make a choice.

• Either let the oil harden and reheat
• Or ladle the mixture into another bowl that was filled with hot boiling water and start the straining process again.

Making multiple batches of tallow

If you were going to make multiple batches, you may use that little bit of oil-water mixture and make sure that you cannot separate to pour into the next batch when you begin it in place of regular water.  If you are not doing any more then you will have to take the leftover oil water and dispose of it. We usually put it outside in the yard so as not to clog up our septic with oil.

Optional molds for making tallow

There are times I choose to pour the rendered tallow into silicone molds like the ones I use for soap making. I place the mold with the oil in it in the freezer for a few hours.  The tallow bars will pop out easily and makes it easier when it comes time to weigh for making soap.

If I do choose to use a mason jar, I always ensure to use a wide-mouth mason jar or better yet a pickle jar that I picked up for free from local restaurants.

Note:  Do not pour the hot liquid into any type of plastic container straight from the canner. In the first pour, you must always use glass or silicone molds.

Does rendering tallow have a smell?

Yes, it has a smell!  Your house or soap lab will be wearing that awful perfume of ode de tallow for days!  In the summertime, if we do a lot of rendering, we have a picnic table on the enclosed porch and we put the pressure cooker out there.

If you overheat the oil or fat, you run the risk of implementing a bad smell into your final product.  Think of it as burning popcorn in the microwave and you can’t get that smell out. Don’t rush the process.

Storing tallow

Store the cooled tallow in Mason jars in a cool, dark place. If you are not going to be using it in the very near future, I highly recommend putting it in your freezer.  If you are going to freeze almost all of your tallow then I suggest not putting it into canning mason jars but plastic storage containers that are freezable.  I actually buy mine from the dollar store. They have three or four containers, for a dollar, it all depends on the size of the container, the larger ones, you get fewer containers for a dollar.

Food safety concerning tallow

I treat the tallow as if I were going to eat it by ensuring I use the proper PPE’s and that my work areas are sanitary.

Pressure Canner Rings

Having designated silicone rings just for rendering fat is recommended. I have an Instant Pot I use for cooking my foods. I actually have designated rings for meats, sauces, and vegetables for the Instant Pot. The pressure canner used here is usually for tallow and corn on the cob, so it really doesn’t matter about having an extra ring.

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Shop tools for making tallow:

Wolfgang Puck BPCRM800 Automatic 8-quart Rapid Pressure Cooker, Orange can be found on Amazon

Strainer can be found on Amazon

China Cap Strainer, Coarse Strainer, Cone Strainer – 9 Inches – Stainless Steel Commercial Grade – 1ct Box – Met Lux – Restaurantware

Ladle can be found on Amazon

Upper Midland Products Stainless Steel Ladles for Soup Sauce 2, 4, 6, 8 Ounce Set Mini Small Medium Large

Wide Mouth Mason Jars can be found on Amazon

Ball Wide Mouth Half Gallon 64 Oz Jars with Lids and Bands Set of 6 (Pack of 4) Brand New and Fast Shipping

For more reading check out the links below:

Check out Rendering what Wikipedia states about animal product.

Read our story Raising meat and dairy goats-why I failed how we started making soaps and rendering tallow for soap making.