Deer Tallow

[Scota4570]

My son got a buck, that is tough out here.  I want to use all of it I can.  Rendering tallow for patch lube?   I was thinking of putting the fat trimmings in a food processor with water.  Then cook it in a crock pot.  The melted fat would then harvested as it floats to the top. 

Am I missing anything?

[J Henry]

   After the initial melting I put mine in the refrigerator to cool then skim and  reheat, removes more junk, and do that process till it comes out clear as I will Accept.

[Hungry Horse]

 I salute you on your goal of using all you can of a harvested deer. I started using deer tallow after par-boiling some venison ribs before BBQing them, and finding a thick layer of venison grease on top of the cooled water left over from the par-boiling. Other fat from the deer can be processed the same way. This tallow is solid, and white, and works very well. Goat, and mutton, tallow can be processed the same way. All these natural greases are high on the flash point scale, and make great patch lube.

  Hungry Horse

[J Henry]

   Do not use it on your boots as a water proofiing dog love the taste or atleast Prince did.

[Don Steele]

   Do not use it on your boots as a water proofiing dog love the taste or atleast Prince did.

I can see how that has the potential to cost a fellow a pair of boots.
My last Great Dane, “ Mr. Spock”...( the ears you know) found Neetsfoot oil to be a sufficient attraction to cost me a pair of Carolina  engineer boots. 

[Clark Badgett]

I wonder if the shin bones could be boiled for oil like you can with cows?

[bnewberry]

Makes a good candle as well as patch lube.

[Dobyns]

Deer tallow can be the basis of lye soap.  I have some here that is almost pure white, rendered 3X I think. 

[Scota4570]

Mine came out snow white.  I got two pints. 

I ground up the fat and fatty trimmings in a food processor to a rice like consistency.  I then put it in am enameled  dutch oven with a couple cups of water.  I cooked it at a low boil for an hour or so.  The grease floated to the top.  I skimmed it off with a ladle and filtered it through cheese cloth.  It took a couple of decants to get all the water out.   It was easier than anticipated. 

After the initial rendering I ground the remaining bits to a paste and boiled again.  I go so little extra tallow that I consider the mess not worth the trouble.  It was cloudier and required more fussing to clean up. 

Patches??  Rub them with the tallow?  Seems like a lot of messy work.

I have tried submerging patches in hot beef  tallow and wringing them out.  Seems like too much grease.

I have melted beef tallow in solvent, dipped, wringed out, and dried.  It is a Dutch Shultz variation of sorts.  At 3:1 it  makes a clean patch that seems to shoot more accurately than goopy patches. 

Opinions?

[smylee grouch]

I have had good luck placing a dry patch between a dipped patch, the excess from the dipped patch migrates to the dry and it seems to be less messy and I still get patch lube throughout the patch which I like.

[Hungry Horse]

 Beef, or bison tallow does not have the high temperature tolerance that venison, mutton, or goat tallow does. It also tends to get brittle in cold weather.

  Hungry Horse

[WadePatton]

A trick I learned when putting tallow into jars: fill, invert, let it solidify and then pour off the water. Leave it open until it's dry-then cap it before the mice find it.  Repeat the process if you left way too much water and want fuller containers.

It looks good in a tallow hole, and even if you don't lube with it (a blend usually for me-straight tallow can be a bit stiff), it's great for weatherproofing the pan or slickin' down your whiskers when they're being unruly. 

Yep I've made soap of it too.

I've never ground the fat up, just boiled it (twice probably) and separated off the water.

[bnewberry]

I don’t use water, just low heat in a cast iron dutch oven, not covered. It always comes out hard and snow white.