Hi Bawdy,
I found that it stopped rendering as quickly once the fat got to a certain depth. I poured off all but a small amount and then rendered the rest with good results. That being said, I tend to be impatient and insecure about the process so it might have continued on just fine if I had left it alone? I know Deano has a lot of experience with this and I'm sure he'll be chiming in soon.
I'm not sure this is at all helpful.
Good luck!
Sig

Hmmm. I'll try that. I did just take it out of the oven and stirred it with a metal spoon.

GEEZUM CROW! Why didn't someone tell me this would be hot!?!?!?!?!?!

Oooooh!!
Carefull!!

NOW you tell me. I stirred it up, and then spooned up a little piece to taste. Burned my tongue AND my lips!

Bawdy,
Maybe it would be better to spoon out the cracklings into another heat proof dish and put that back in the oven. Let the grease in the first container cool before trying to move it to another container. Don't want you to get burned.
Sig

I'm fine. Really. A little dumb, but fine.

I poured the whole lot from the cake pan through a seive into a round glass oven casserole dish (with lid). I used pot holders. Really. Then I dumped the solid part back into the hot cake pan and put that back in the oven. I used pot holders. Really.



I gotta say, though. I let a few little pieces cool off on a plate and then tried to eat one. Not bad, but not great either. I gave the plate to one of my cats, and he turned up his nose at it. He's not a big meat eater, though, sad to say. I used to have a cat that I swear KNEW exactly how much turkey was left over from Thanksgiving. He knew to the ounce. He'd sit in front of that fridge every day until it was gone. Then when it was gone, he never sat in front of the fridge again.

I gotta get these cats on a better diet. My 15-year-old likes meat and fat -- she and I fight over licking my plate these days! The 2-year-olds (male and female) are not interested in meat. The male likes "tuna juice," but neither one of them will eat leftover meat when I put it out.

Now THAT was interesting. Another use for lard--make your own soap!

My MIL not only always rendered her own lard from both fat from pork roasts but also from bacon. Southern cooks keep a can of bacon drippings on the stove all the time.


She also made her own soap.

I will never forget one time when she and my father-in-law were moving and had the U-HAUL all packed up when she came running out of the house with a can full of bacon grease pleading for my FIL to put it in the truck! It was apparently a very precious commodity in her opinion.

"I gotta say, though. I let a few little pieces cool off on a plate and then tried to eat one. Not bad, but not great either."

I didn't think they were all that great either. Maybe it's got to do with where the fat comes from on the animal?
I'm just wincing over the idea of your burning your mouth. Ouch! It's one of those "what was I thinking" moments. I seem to have those more and more now that the old horrormoans are giving me trouble. I keep forgetting to turn off the burner on the stove! Honestly!
Sig

If you read this LONG thread (ha! this is nothin', right! )... you would know what you were doing. I just cut fat into 1" chunks... put them into a couple glass containers (those ones with the glass lids - like you would cook a rice casserole in!). I put them in the oven, with the lids OFF... turned the oven on like 225F and let them sit in there for hours and hours... I think close to seven hours. MAN... what a GREAT smell! Later, all the fat had turned to this beautiful liquid gold... and there were these little tiny cracklin's at the bottom of the bowl. I got HOT PAN MITS!!! and took out the glass bowls and poured them through a strainer into another bowl... getting all these incredible cracklin's out. BOY those were heaven on earth when I tossed them into my mouth... they just BURST in my mouth and all this wonderful hot fat ran down my throat (you wouldda have had to been there!)... ANYWAY... I then took pint size mason jars and put cheese cloth over them (using a thick rubber band to hold it). I then poured this liquid gold into the mason jars thru the cheese cloth. I only filled the jars half full. I then let them cool on the counter, and a couple hours later I put them away in the freezer (one went to the fridge and one to the cupboard). IT'S ALL IN THIS THREAD!!!

Sweetie, although I didn't read every single word, I did read all of YOUR posts and many of the others. I did read how you did it, but it still didn't answer my question of exactly how do you KNOW when it's done? Like, you kept it in for 7 hours. Others said a couple hours. When I stirred it up after about 3 hours, it crunched a little, but then when I took a couple pieces out, it cooled solid in a couple minutes -- solid fat again, nothing resembling anything that would crackle.

I finally took it out of the oven, poured it through the seive, and put the rendered fat back in the fridge. I'll put the solids back in the oven tomorrow morning and leave it all day long.

Deano, sweetie, you know from other threads that I'm a definite Type A obsessive-compulsive. I need to know EXACTLY on things. I don't "wing" things very well!

If you put the fat cubes into a glass bowl (they can be piled up in the bowl, no problem) and then you just put them in the oven (with the lid OFF) and forget about them. What you are looking for as the end result is going to be a big glass bowl of liquid gold... and there will be these itsy bitsy pieces of cracklin's at the very bottom of the bowl. When you see that... you know you've reached THE END!

It is MUCH easier than people make it out to be! That is what is so funny. You can also do this on the stove top. If you have a gas stove, turn your burner as LOW AS POSSIBLE and put a big skillet on the stove. Put a whole bunch of these fat cubes into the skillet, and leave the lid OFF. You should stir them with a WOOD spoon every hour or so. They will slowly MELT, and in the end, you want a big skillet full of liquid gold... with itsy bitsy pieces (cracklin's) at the bottom. These cracklin's will be about the size of peas. They will burst in your mouth if you eat 'em while they're hot!

Thanks, Dean! What was left over tonight are larger chunks, so my plan to start (yet again) tomorrow seems right.

I have a smooth-top stove, and the heating elements heat too high. Even on the lowest setting things still cook too fast. Looks like I'll be using the oven.

WOODEN utensils. Gotcha.

POT HOLDERS. Gotcha.

The "rendered" fat (the liquid you poured off) is NOT rendered. See, the whole idea is to actually RENDER the fat... meaning... get ALL the moisture out of it. So, that is why it is important to leave it in the oven or on the stove top (much better way to do it anyway) with the LID OFF... so the moisture can evaporate out. You don't want any moisture in the fat when you are done. It will keep for a LONG time if it does not have moisture in it. You want PURE fat. SO... you should put EVERYTHING back in the oven (or into a skillet) and allow the process to work. You will notice these small fat pieces floating on top of the liquid... WAIT till they have all sunk to the bottom and are all shriveled up... THESE are cracklin's!

Geez. So many rules. OK, ok. I'll put EVERYTHING back in the oven and just leave it all day long.