Mutton tallow

[gmatov]

Duncan,

I must differ with you. In the UK, they split a small pig, I think, I hope it is not our 350 pounder, and injection cure the whole thing as "bacon". How they charge for it, whether from what we consider "bacon" sowbelly, and higher on the hog cuts, I do not know.

Here, sowbelly, what you call streaky bacon, the 75% fatty bacon, goes about 4 USD per pound. What is sold as "Canadian Bacon", the loin, goes 8 or 9 bucks a pound.

Never question me on what stuff costs, here. I am death on the stupidly high prices of foodstuffs.

Can you believe 1.39 USD per pound of rice? 2.19 USD for the most insipid bread you could ever imagine? 8 USD per pound for Turkey based luncheon meat, the pressed and formed roll of , yuk, turkey?

We live in vastly diverse worlds. Where you are, bread and cheese are staples, and wine is close behind.

Here, we are supposed to buy the "Big Mac", or the big name makers frankfurters, at 4 USD per pound. Factory made cheeses at minimum 5 USD per pound. Pure rubber, and taste the same. Gorgonzola at 14 USD per pound.

Yet, I go to the "Strip District", the importers, as it were, and buy the same Gorgonzola at 4.50 per pound. And, I love Gorgonzola, and most of the Bleus.
We are being screwed.

True, the Brits also sell pork, but they DO cure the whole pig and call it bacon. You wanna see some scans of the process? Got a book. With pics.

Cheers,

George

 

[Duncaninfrance]

I know it is being picky but to the English bacon is thin rashers of back and streaky. You also get thicker pieces of back called Gammon - nice with a fried egge, pineapple and chips. There are also 'Bacon Joints' which is really Ham.

Pork however is chops, loin to roast etc. All from the same animal I know. The only part you don't use is the squeak!

As for McDonnalds. I have NEVER eaten one and refuse to go near them. They were contributing to Noraid (IRA) so they can go jump for me. I don't waste my money on other burger shops either, it's all rubbish. Who the hell wants salad on a burger. Lions do NOT roar on lettuce.

As for bread and cheese - not on your life. You should see a French meal from start to finish. A good one takes about 4 hours!
Duncan

 

[Third_Rail]

George, where do you live?

A pound of rice goes for $.35 here, and I get 25# bags of flour for $4.50 to make good bread. Two # of dry yeast was $2.25, a gallon of milk is $3.29, a # of butter is $1.50, and a dozen eggs is no more than $.79 around here.

As for cheese, I'm not a huge fan nowadays, but now and then I do buy parmasean cheese for $7/lb, which is a real treat.

Bacon? $1.99 for a 1.25 pounds.
Beef? London broil cut is $1.59/lb.
Chicken? $1.19/lb for boneless, skinless chicken breasts.



Took me a while to find all these prices, but hey, now I can actually have food on the table...

 

[Duncaninfrance]

Hey TR, you got a job then or just robbed a bank
Duncan

 

[Third_Rail]

Nah, my wife found a part time job - I'm back in school.

 

[Duncaninfrance]

Well food on the table is a good start! I suppose you could always spread mutton tallow on your bread
NO! Don't hit me, i'm only little!!!
Duncan

 

[geraldbergeron]

Hi everybody,

Well, ... I did it ...

What a job ! and what a smell...

I had about 3 pounds of stock

A few hours later... about 0.5 pound of mutton tallow

Thank you everybody for the informations.

.....................................................................Gerald........../

 

[gmatov]

Damned scanner quit on me a while back. Have to get a new one. Was gonna scan this week's circular from my largest local supermarket, the Giant Eagle.

Innyhoo, their brand of butter is on sale, with card, as buy 1 get 1 free, at 2.98 per pound.

Ground beef, called ground round, at 85% lean, NOT ground round, by any stretch of the imagination, 1.99 in family pack of 3 pounds or more.

Black Angus filet mignon steaks, 13.99 per pound

Ball Park Franks, BOGO, (Buy 1 get 1), save 4.48. That means they regularly charge 4.48 per pound.

Oscar Meyer Bacon, 2 for 7 bucks, save 4.98 on 2 with your card, , so 11.98, or 5.99 per pound. AND, depending on the package you choose, you just might get the 12 ounce package, probably a "smoke flavored" package. That's 8 bucks a pound.

I buy my own groceries. I KNOW what stuff costs.

Gerald,

If you had "leaf fat" from the kidney area, the best for rendering, and the best tasting when you render a hog, and you started with 3 pounds or so, you done something wrong. You should have gotten 2.5 pounds or so of tallow. I, personally, would not say the smell was bad, I love it.

To each his own.

That 1/2 pound, with a half pound of beeswax, and a half pound, 1 cup of olive oil should make you something the approximation of Gatefeo's lube, refer to his post to see just what you should be measuring. Still, probably enough for 1000 shots or so. Pound and a half for what, 3 bucks or so?

Put it in the mike and melt it, soak some wool felt in it, lay it out to cool on a cookie sheet lined with saran wrap, to make cleanup easier, use a punch and make mebbe 5000 wads out of that same amount of lube.

Cheers,

George

 

[Gatofeo]

Alas, I found this post much too late. My apologies.
I don't seem to get into the message boards as much as I once did.

Here's how to render tallow from fat. I've done this with deer fat, given me by hunter friends. No reason it won't work for sheep fat too:

1. Get a big soup kettle or pan, depending on how much fat you have.
2. Dump in the fat.
3. Add water so it more than covers the fat.
4. Heat the water to pert near boiling, enough to melt the fat.
5. When all the melted tallow is floating on top, place the soup pot in a cool or cold place. The refrigerator works. If you do this project in winter, it's easier to place it outside.
6. When cold the tallow will have hardened into a cookie, on top.
7. Sometimes you can flip the cookie on one side and remove it whole. Most of the time, you have to remove it in chunks but that's okay.
8. Pat the cold tallow dry with paper towels, to remove any drops of water clinging to it.
9. Store it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
10. If need be, you can melt the tallow in a small pan and pour it into a snap-top container. This eliminates the need to have big containers to store big chunks.
11. Don't melt the tallow at a high heat, just enough to get it melted. You don't want to melt your plastic container.
12. Label the contents and date them, so you'll always use the oldest first.

 

[gmatov]

Cat,

I don't want to argue with you, but, from time immemorial, when slaughtering hogs each winter, for the winter's sustenance, they simply filled the same kettle they used to scald the hogs for dehairing with the excess fat. Rendered it directly, no water to boil it in.

That fat was a staple for energy, what we would use butter for today. Take a slab of bread, smear it with lard and you are good till lunch time.

You do NOT boil the lard out of fat, you directly render it. You do NOT introduce water into the process.

You will NEVER get all the fat out of the fat you put into the pot, in water. Ie, make a stew, cut the meat into cubes and brown, then go on with your stew, or soup. Any piece that had fat on it will dtill have FAT on it, fatty tissue, which, I would assume, most of you would go "OOOH, yuck!!" over should you bite into it.

SAme as you will throw a whole chicken in the pot to make soup, mebbe half a pound of fat on it, boil it, skim an ounce or so from the surface after it has cooled, as you suggest.

By the same token, them of you who say to boil, try taking a good rack of spare ribs and boiling them to "parboil". Stinks to high heaven. Broil them to get the fat out, you'll never get the fat out by boiling. Boiling goes to 212 degrees, rendering is 350 to 400 degrees. Breaks down the fat cells, ALL the fat comes out. 3 pounds goes in the kettle, at least 2 1/2 of rendered fat comes out, and the "cracklings".

Cheers,

George

BTW, makes you kinda wonder why the newest sponsor is selling waste fat at 32 to 40 bucks a pound. Markup, I can understand but 1,000% seems excessive. I have had to pay more for my Extra Virgin Olive Oil, about 18 bucks for 3 litres, say 3 bucks a pound. Waste fat, free, basically, parrafin, probably 3 bucks a pound.

Do as you wish. Some people like to pay way more than a product is worth, just to show that they can.