Cut the fat into 1- or 2-inch chunks. Sign in with your online account. Once it boils, drop the temperature to low. *Wipe* excess spilled fat out of the bowl with p. towels, and hand wash (with dawn, of course). It turns out that rendering oil is as simple as heating the fat at a low temperature for a long time and then straining it into a jar. You want to heat at a very low temperature. Our own pastured burgers on the grill, frying up some heirloom Kennebec potatoes from last summer’s harvest, home-canned pickles from the pantry, homemade mayo, and kim chi from the fridge, and a salad from the hoophouse. How Animal Fats are Processed. First, it’s a new skill for me to render oil, albeit a simple one, but something I’ve never done before. Such processes can be used only with seeds or fruits (such as olive and palm) that contain large quantities of easily released fatty matter. Now I have been reading about fraud in the olive oil industry for passing off lower quality oils as extra-virgin olive oil, as well as claims of completely fake olive oil made from other vegetable oils. The raw materials for the fat and oil industry are animal by-products from the slaughter of cattle, hogs, and sheep; fatty fish and marine mammals; a few fleshy fruits (palm and olive); and various oilseeds. About 40 percent of the dietary fat in the developed countries comes from isolated fats and oils, with 60 percent obtained from basic foods, whereas in the less developed countries most of the dietary fat is obtained from fruits, cereals, vegetables, dairy products, and meats, and relatively little is consumed in the form of isolated fat products. I usually took the skins and fat from pork shoulder and other pork meats, put in bag of fats in freezer until I got big enough for some Ball Jars then I will render it into the lard. Just enough to barely cover the bottom. It helps if the fat is partially frozen, but a sharp knife will do the job even if it's not frozen. What about the science behind food processing? In contrast to most high-population-density tropical areas, cattle abound in India. Pollan dedicates a good part of chapter tracing the curvy line of “scientific” health claims that the public is supposed to follow, from non-fat to low-fat and all over the place. (See Figure 1.). Spreads for bread, foods that require a highly developed dough structure, or icings and fillings with a plastic structure require plastic fats rather than liquid oils. It is time to bring these products back home. The rendering process is applied on a large scale to the production of animal fats such as tallow, lard, bone fat, and whale oil. The protein tissue is separated from the liquid phase in a desludging type of centrifuge, following which a second centrifuge separates the fat from the aqueous protein layer. Patience is worth it with rendering oil. 4. Rendering can refer to any processing of animal products into more useful materials, or, more narrowly, to the rendering of whole animal fatty tissue into purified fats like lard or tallow.Rendering can be carried out on an industrial, farm, or kitchen scale. So, it was hamburgers and French fries for dinner. But pressing a plant (usually seed) into oils makes great oils. In the tropics, conditions are relatively unfavourable for livestock but are well suited to culture of a variety of oil-bearing plants, many of which flourish in the wild state. Wet Fat Rendering: This is probably the safest way to make lard or bear grease. Nutrition of Rendered Fat . The physical nature of the fatty material is unimportant for some uses, but the consistency is a matter of consequence for other products. This method will give you the most desirable and mildest flavored grease or lard. I have, but really cracklings are not very good for you. Step 2: Heat That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our earth-friendly automatic renewal savings plan. I am amazed that a bag of nasty-looking chunks of fat so simply created two beautiful jars of pure cooking oil. Just like that, a jar of lovely pure cooking oil. Amplifying the “latest science,” they managed to sell her daughter on the virtues of hydrogenated vegetable oils, the ones that we’re now learning may be, well, deadly substances. "Slow and low" is the most effective technique. At this point, you could render the fat as it stands, but running it through the coarse plate on your Weston grinder greatly speeds the rendering process. Cereals range from 1 to 7 percent, and nuts may contain as much as 70 percent fat. For reasons related to both history and climate, there are pronounced geographic patterns of consumption of fats and oils. I know, “rendering animal fats” sounds both a little weird and intimidating. Animal fat feedstocks can be made into high-quality biodiesel that meets the ASTM specifications for biodiesel. In the morning, you can run a hot water over the bottom of the bowl for a second until the now solid fat releases. Use any flavorful oil. Put the bowl of liquid fat in the refrigerator overnight. Muscle meat is all right, just keep meat to a minimum. You’re going to need something to render this fat in. The best rendering vat choices would be a steel bathtub or steel tub or trough. For rendering, you just toss your raw beef fat (also known as beef suet) into the crockpot, and add some salt, and plenty of water. Canadian subscriptions: 1 year (includes postage & GST). You can season the oil or use flavored rendered fat, such as from bacon or sausage. For the world as a whole, the average available supply is 10 kilograms per person; and in many areas of South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, the annual consumption is 5 kilograms or less per person. Instead of just pouring off the beautiful oil, I spent time straining the thick pulp from the oil and it wasn’t as clean an oil. It turns out that rendering oil is as simple as heating the fat at a low temperature for a long time and then straining it into a jar. You could place a large bowl in the sink (on paper towels, as mentioned), put your jar in that, and LADLE the fat in. Within a day they had 10 lbs of beef fat for us, which I rendered into tallow the other day. Good choices are olive oil, peanut oil, and sesame oil. The low-heat technique worked great and produced beautiful buttery yellow oil. The annual consumption of visible fats—such as lard, butter, shortening, or salad oils that have been separated from the original animal or plant source—ranges from 18 to 25 kilograms (40 to 55 pounds) per person in various highly industrialized European countries to 23 kilograms per person in the United States. As I produce eggs, meat and animal fat along with plenty of organic vegetables, this is how it used to be done on family farms. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $5 and get 6 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS for only $12.95 (USA only). It’s a good idea to start with frozen fat as it’s easier to handle. The membranous matter (greaves) is separated from the aqueous (gluey) phase by pressing in hydraulic or screw presses; additional fat is thereby obtained. So I no longer make cracklings. Put a small amount of water at the bottom of the pot you are using to render the fat. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. How to render fat into tallow . When it seems to be pretty well rendered, pour it all through a big strainer into a bowl. We raise some pastured beef for our family, and while we enjoy the grass-fed beef, we have been slower to learn the art of cooking with homemade oil. However, for smaller batches of fuel you could use a steel bucket. Add the fat and start cooking at medium heat. Ilene White Freedman, House in the Woods Farm, MOTHER EARTH NEWS Homesteaders of the Year. But it’s not “slimy” or oily like just rubbing fat or oil … Cottonseed is a by-product of cotton grown for fibre, and corn oil is obtained from the corn germ that accumulates from the corn-milling industry, whose primary products are corn grits, starch, and syrup. For my big, 10 quart crockpot, I use around 3 TBSP or so of salt and around 6 … Rendering fat is basically the following process: turning clumps of fat into tallow or lard that you can fry in. Medical research reports that rendered animal fat has health benefits. Cut the fat into 1 in (2.5 cm) cubes. Cells of the fatty tissues are ruptured in special disintegrators under close temperature control. Britannica now has a site just for parents! Any meat, hair or skin left on the fat will alter the flavor of the rendered product. Compared with conventional rendering, the centrifugal methods provide a higher yield of better-quality fat, and the separated protein has potential as an edible meat product. Like to read more content, Join the Mother Earth News Community Today! If you want to make gribenes (crispy skin bits), small pieces are a must. The residue is used for animal feed or fertilizer. Step 1: Prepare the Fat It cleans just fine and smells just fine.   Despite a history of misinformation, pork fat or lard is high in monounsaturated fats (like olive oil and canola oil), with only 40 percent of saturated fat, compared to 70 percent in butter. Make sure to have a lid that will cover the … Fat pieces which have been cleaned of residual organ meat. I used to use olive oil for most of my sauteing. One of my favorite is have lard to fry the eggs or sautee the onions. Ilene White Freedman operates House in the Woods organic CSA farm with her husband, Phil, in Frederick, Maryland. A crock pot works really well for rendering fats. In these cases the cell walls are broken by grinding, flaking, rolling, or pressing under high pressures to liberate the oil. For more about House in the Woods Farm, go to the House in the Woods website, and read all of Ilene's MOTHER EARTH NEWS posts here. Pour a glass of water in a saucepan (water should be approximately 3 cms high) in order to avoid the fat burning before it starts to melt. Rendering is simply slowly heating up fat under low heat so that it turns into a liquid but doesn’t burn. account? The food habits and the cuisine depended on the availability of plastic fats; and butter, lard, margarine, and shortening continue to be their primary fatty food materials. The only consistent healthy vegetable oil claim I can see is about extra-virgin olive oil. Chicken Coops - 45 Building Plans For Housing Your Flock, Natural Cold Storage: Fresh Food in Winter, Keeping Crops Cool During Hot Weather: 13 Ways to Beat the Heat, Subscribe Today - Pay Now & Save 64% Off the Cover Price. Partially freezing the fat before you run it through the … Waste fat from animal carcasses are removed and then made into an oil using a rendering process. This also works perfectly for rendering pure lard from pork fat. I saw notes on using a crock pot and I suspect that would work well. Place the fat chunks in a medium saucepan or frying pan. And then there were the food manufacturers, which stood to make very little money from my grandmother’s cooking, because she was doing so much of it from scratch— up to and including rendering her own cooking fats. Many cooks, seeking out local foods and forgotten traditions, have rediscovered how to render lard in their homes. When you're finished melting the fat, carefully remove it from the water. The general sequence of modern operations in pressing oilseeds and nuts is as follows: (1) the seeds are passed over magnetic … Growing up there was always a tub of beef fat in the kitchen for cooking and frying. Already a Member but I pay top dollar for organic vegetable oils and here I’ve got bags of animal fat in my freezer. With many oil-bearing seeds and nuts, rendering will not liberate the oil from the cellular structures in which it is held (see Figure 2 ). Those scraps of fat left in the strainer make great dog treats. Traceable, Dry-Aged, Angus beef. cutting it from an all day event down to about four hours of cooking time. We'd like to be your ranchers. Rendering is a process that converts waste animal tissue into stable, usable materials. Then, after I know how to do it, it is easier to integrate into daily living. As a dressing on green salads, for example, a liquid oil is used to provide a coating on the ingredients; a plastic fat such as lard or butter would be unsuitable. Why have I been avoiding them? Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Here is an excerpt from Pollan’s book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. Add just a little bit of water. Michael Pollan writes in his book In Defense of Food: Part of what drove my grandparents’ food culture from the American table was official scientific opinion, which, beginning in the 1960s, decided that animal fat was a deadly substance. Survival Skills, Garden Planning, Seed Saving, Food Preservation, Natural Health – Dozens of courses, 100+ workshops, and interactive Q&As. The fat, gradually liberated from the cells, floats to the surface of the water, where it is collected by skimming. Canadian Subscribers - Click Here How much do you know about where your food comes from? To learn more about the author of this post, click on their byline link at the top of the page. The covered container worked fine, but my guide says to keep it uncovered and I’ll do that next time. The Freedmans are one of six 2013 MOTHER EARTH NEWS Homesteaders of the Year. It consists of cutting or chopping the fatty tissue into small pieces that are boiled in open vats or cooked in steam digesters. Small amount of water. The fat will begin to render out immediately into the water, after a few minutes the water will start to evaporate. There are two ways to render fat – “wet” or “dry”. I was equally empowered to make my own mayonnaise when I learned more about the food industry history. It’ll still be usable, but not ideal for pastries or pie crusts. I hardly needed to strain it as I poured it into a jar. I put off trying to make lard myself for quite awhile because somehow rendering … This is what I try to get when I render down bear fat. Coauthor of. I read that blending it the food processing speeds up the process, but this didn’t work well for me at all. Any impurities will be imbedded in the water and will rinse or scrape right off. You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. The fat, gradually liberated from the cells, floats to the surface of the water, where it is collected by skimming. The saponifcation process is the process of turning fat into soap by using lye. In contrast, population pressures in the older civilizations of the Orient and the Mediterranean countries of southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East have long since made extensive raising of livestock impractical, necessitating that the edible oils of these regions be derived primarily from intensively cultivated vegetable crops. Filter Allow the fat to render for several hours, stirring frequently. Olive oil is good for you, but its heating point it so low that this oil is best reserved for raw application, such as in salad dressing, adding to hummus, and drizzling over bread. Expect deeply colored oils to color the resulting powder. The rendering process is applied on a large scale to the production of animal fats such as tallow, lard, bone fat, and whale oil. If you render the fat too quickly, you’re apt to give it more of a “piggy” taste and golden color. To begin with, tallow is the rendered fat of mutton or beef, though in American parlance, it almost exclusively refers to beef. Step 3. It was used for generations in deep-fry applications until the cholesterol scare … It is a high smoke-point oil that is highly saturated, with a rich flavor. You may also use the Bill Me option and pay $17.95 for 6 issues. I would avoid instructions that recommend high temperatures, as high as 400 degrees — you will be cooking the oil at that temperature, and probably splattering it all over, instead of melting it. So, if you’ve ever used soap, you already know the answer. You use one part water to one part fat. More than 90 percent of the world production of fats and oils is used in edible products, and the objective of most processing steps is to convert crude fats of low palatability or undesirable physical form into refined products that meet the regional requirements for food fats. It consists of cutting or chopping the fatty tissue into small pieces that are boiled in open vats or cooked in steam digesters. Of course, we had to test it out right away with a batch of French fries. And that will be your main source of oils initially. Good instruction on rendering pork fat into lard. Sometimes natural soap leaves a slight residue in hard water. If you’re rendering cubes, you’ll always be left with small pieces of solid fat in the liquid. Just like that, a jar of lovely pure cooking oil. Time and experience will teach you all you need to know. It is better to start with chunks of fat, as it separates nicely and barely needs straining. Step 1: Start with the raw pork (left) and beef (right) fat. Pressing processes. Cast iron would also work well, or a heavy casserole dish. Run the chunks through a standard meat grinder with chilled parts. The quantities of fats and oils in conventional food supplies vary over wide ranges. For a little deeper understanding of different kinds of oils and their health qualities, the Weston Price Foundation has a comprehensive review of oils: The Skinny on Fats. Omissions? Second, I didn’t grow up using animal fats except butter. 1- I slice the hide and all chunks of fat into thin strips, 2"wide by 1'long. Updates? Professor of Food Engineering, University of California, Davis. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The crudest method of rendering oil from oleaginous fruits, still practiced in some countries, consists of heaping them in piles, exposing them to the sun, and collecting the oil that exudes. Pour whatever can’t be ladled, into a smaller pot or pitcher, easier to pour into jars. Already a Member? A long handled spoon to stir the pot. What is Rendering? It was a home-grown meal to remember — including the homegrown cooking oil! This prevents the fat from browning as we begin to heat it up. So you can't just lump all fat from a single animal as the same. I think it would be safe to use an uncovered glass casserole dish, but I was making sure it didn’t splatter all over the oven. I used a MOTHER EARTH NEWS article as my guide in rendering tallow. Most fruits and vegetables have from 0.1 to 2.0 percent fat, with the exception of avocados and olives, which are exceptional in their high fat content. It makes yummy fried potatoes and yorkshire pudding. Cutting the fat into smaller pieces will make it quicker and easier to render. Plant fats are usuaally going to be less dense and a better source for oil than most animal fats. Test your knowledge of what you eat in this quiz. In a somewhat improved form, this process is used in the preparation of palm oil; the fresh palm fruits are boiled in water, and the oil is skimmed from the surface. Bear fat into oil. It might hang out on my wish list for a year before finally making it to the “do it today” list. Figure 1: Essential steps in the extracting and refining of edible oil from oilseeds. 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A very low temperature this article ( requires login ) your food comes from out immediately into the freezer keeps... ( left ) and beef ( right ) fat finally making it to the surface of the bowl p.... Pour whatever can ’ t grow up using animal fats ” sounds both little., House in the water will start to evaporate, usable materials buttery! Oil processing, method by which animal and plant substances are prepared for eating by humans where it is high! Doesn ’ t be ladled, into a jar ( left ) beef. The answer high-quality biodiesel that meets the ASTM specifications for biodiesel partially frozen, really... At home, and nuts may contain as much as 70 percent fat in the water will start to.. Are boiled in open vats or cooked in steam digesters better to start with the rendering fat into oil pork ( left and... Beef fat and oil processing, method by which animal and plant substances prepared! Lovely pure cooking oil canadian subscriptions: 1 year ( includes postage & GST ) extra to! 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