I never thought about getting fat from the butcher shoppes around here - duh that makes total sense. I think I'll go get some buffalo fat right after christmas and start rendering myself - well not myself - but the buffalo trimmings :P

we eat so much wild game and there just isn't fat on it. We use a lot of bacon grease - well - sidepork usually - that way its not chock full of preservatives if we have to buy it in a store.

I know just what you mean! I eat bison, elk, deer, free-range chickens and turkeys, etc. There is so little fat on this meat, that it makes me leery! BUT, of course the fat that is there has the good ratio of omega 3/6 (very important!). This is why Loren Cordain was saying we should all watch our saturated fat, in his Paleo Diet book. But, paleo hunters would wait until the animals had the most body fat before they killed them, and fat and organ meat was prized over any other part of the animal. If there was a huge surplus of animals to kill, they would even discard the muscle and eat the fat and organs and intestines. rissa, it sounds like you are getting wild game meat from farms around your area. If so, make sure to tell the processor to include all the organs and fat they can. Often they just throw this stuff away, since no one would want that! Or, as you said, you can call and get fat from a local processor. I would advise to stick to wild game type fat, for the proper ratios of omega fats. Rendering is SO easy! The only work is cutting the fat into small chunks. After that, turn your stove top burner on the lowest setting and render away!

We didn't get a deer this year, but the 'lard' topic got me thinking. Venison meat is very lean, especially our woods deer here, but when we have butchered them in the past, we always carefully cut away the fat that WAS there. Has anybody ever tried using this fat for anything? I'm estimating that I could have recovered up to five pounds off a typical deer. Is it renderable, or completely gross?

I would think it is completely renderable! I for one will be getting deer in a few weeks and will specifically ask for all the fat (and organs). What organs I don't get around to eating, I always put in the raw cat food I make! But, the only way I have been able to come up with answers like this is from taking a chance and trying things out. I don't want to eat raw fat, muscle, organ, eggs, dairy, etc. BUT I HAVE! I find them to be so cold and tasteless (not to mention the possibility of getting bugs!) that I don't wish to pursue eating that way. But, I KNOW that now, and it is only because I experiment with stuff.

I got some bison fat and rendered it, but it was the back fat. Then, on this wonderful forum, someone told me to get the suet (kidney fat) and also the bone marrow (best for pemmican - which I will be making once I get some bison bones!). I don't have a problem with the back fat tallow I have, but am anxious to try the kidney suet. I have already made arrangements with my processor on getting this. In fact... I will just call him up tomorrow and ask him to save me some kidney suet from his next deer butcher. Everyone throws that stuff away, so it should be no problem. Then, once he has set aside some bison suet and deer suet and bison leg bones, I will pick it all up and render it all, and then I will let this forum know what my experience was with the whole thing. That is how we are going to learn, since not too many people are messing with fat (considering the fat phoebe hysteria created by "health" professionals)!

Of course, if someone HAS had experience rendering deer fat, please let us know, so I won't have to mess with it.

ahhhhh, resurrection...

This is a fun thread!
I am currently rendering some beef fat. Was very hard to get an amount worth rendering, tho, since the local stores buy "boxed" meat (in cryo packs) and it is very lean and there is not much fat available to the butchers.
And a local butcher shop that did have some fat sold it to me, because they use the fat for making sausages and it is somewhat "prized" - which sucks for me. Cost me $6.19 for 1.2 kg (2.6 lb).
I am rendering in a large, stainless steel pan. While at the butchers I tried a sample of their cheese smokies- yummmy; so I bought some cheese and bacon ones. I am sauteeing them in a cast iron skillet in some of the beef fat I stole out of my rendering pot...can't wait!

Thanks for starting/contributing to this very informative thread!!
Mae

On a side note, I will make lard next time because pork fat is $1.79/lb at that meat shop, while beef is $2.19/lb!!

I am going to strain it through a coffee filter in a sieve, which should clean it up quite a bit. Can't seem to find cheesecloth around here except around Christmas time (ooops! too late!)
M

i suppose i should read through this entire thread so i understand more about all this lard, suet and fat you guys are talking about..and so i can 'render' it properly.
Question..do i need all this extra fat if i am buying fatty cuts of meat to begin with? Plus i use butter to fry my meat...
is all this fat rendering only for the game meats? I can't afford all these special meats. i eat beef, pork and lamb for the most part..and of course chicken turkey and fish. i wouldnt even know where to buy bison, elk and deer around here. Though i must say that i LOVE deer meat. Years ago when my ex was in the Air Force we had a friend that hunted and he would give us deer meat and deer sausage sometimes...yummmm! I imagine deer meat costs a fortune if you buy it!
So you guys COOK your meat in the fat or lard, right?

The plan is to use it for frying eggs or meat. I am not going to buy any specialty meats. I like beef and chicken mostly, and some odd cuts of pork. When I was in cooking school, we cooked lamb, but the smell was so gross, I could not eat it, nor am i inclined to eat it.

I was looking up the ingredients in commercially prepared lard and found this link: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/...5/22/c2719.html

Why would there be any trans fats in a pure meat product? Who out there knows the scoop on these trans fats. I have read some stuff at this site, but not enough to know if I could take a chance on buying this product if I needed it.

any comments???

Mae,

Don't buy the junk "lard" at the store! It has hydrogenated fat (trans fats) in it! That stuff will kill you! Just render your own. You should call around to some meat processors, and other butcher shops, to get fat. Just google till you find some in your area. I guess I am very lucky, cuz I can get all the beef fat I want from a grocery store that is one block away! And, if I want fat from bison, I can get all I want from meat processors out in the country. Or, from pigs, same thing. I once got a pig and there was 35 lbs of fat. I could not fit it in my freezer, so the woman I got the pig from "owes me" all the fat I would ever want to render. I have heard bad things about pork from so many places, though, that I am sticking with bison tallow for the time being. I don't care for lamb either!

Karen,

Yah... you use the fat as Mae said... to fry eggs in. I use butter for that as well, but I have no problem using the tallow either. Same thing with bison stew... I just put butter or tallow in when reheating. I imagine it could be used for lots of thing. Pemmican is one that I plan to use it for. I just talked to the processor who does my bison, and he just butchered a couple bison and said he will get me about five lbs of bison kidney suet. I will be rendering that in a couple weeks!

Rendering fat is rendering fat... it doesn't matter if it is "game" meat. In fact, "game" meat has such little amount of fat. Pigs on the other hand! You can render duck fat, chicken fat, any fat. Rendering fat is FUN!

Deer meat is not expensive if you contact the processors who process the hunters' deer. Many hunters can't afford to pay for all the storage fees and processing fees, and therefore end up leaving a lot of deer behind after the season is over. I always get deer meat VERY cheap (sometimes for $0.25/lb) that is left over (like in April). I am getting ready to get some real soon here. Last year I got a boat load of deer sausages... you are SO right... they are delicious! I hope he has some this year! Check around your area. You are in farm country... so you should have processors galore all over the place!

Deano,
i am not in farm country..im in chicago..lol
Thanks for all the advice. i still dont understand who i am supposed to talk to about this deer meat!

Close enough. You just search for meat processors in towns around where hunting happens. Then, take a trip out of the city, and pick up some cheap deer meat. And, put it in your freezer... but, don't tell Bear... cuz, you should never freeze meat!

how do i SEARCH for meat processors? do i google them or what? sorry to sound like a dunce..but seriously..i am confused on how to find these people!! lol..and dont worry i definitely wont mention that you told me to freeze meat to the Bear, unless i get pissed off at you some day..then ill tattle like crazy!! ha ha!

Bear knows I freeze meat. I have a freezer and get really good deals on meat. I don't have a problem freezing meat. It only makes it taste a bit "off", but compared to what? Most meat sold at the store has been frozen, then thawed, then frozen, then thawed... You would have to go to a butcher where only fresh meat is sold. Then you would have to pay a lot of money. Then you would have to return to the butcher soon... If you can find a way to do it economically, I'm all for it. But, in the real world... I'll take deer meat at $0.25 a pound!

Yes... use google.

Use this site. Plug in things like "meat processor", "butcher", whatever. It will show you hits going out from a zip code (for a fifty mile radius). Hint: Use a zip code for some small town out in "hunter country", then it will show you the meat processors in that area. And, when you call one processor, if they don't have what you want, they will usually know someone who does. So, just ask.

You can put in "meat-" in the search field and get various categories like meat-retail and others.

Help!

I have some suet rendering in my oven right now. It's in a 9" square cake pan (hey, gotta use those old cake pans for SOMETHING!). It's been in there for at least 3 hours now, and it's not all melted yet. It started out as a few larger pieces (like half a ping-pong ball), but mostly smallish pieces the size of almonds.

So how do I know when it's done?

Will all the fat melt? I guess not, since you talk about cracklin's. How do I know when everything is done?

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