I rendered some more tallow this weekend. I got a blob of suet, about a pound, from my grandmother a little while ago because she bought it to feed the birds and they wouldn't eat it. It's been in my freezer forever, and since I had to clear out the freezer to make space for more beef, I decided to render.
This time, I decided to use Mark Sisson's technique of processing partially-frozen suet in the food processor to get small pieces, and then used Ann Marie's technique to render the fat in the crock pot.
It took about 3 or 4 hours. 3 hours in, the beagle became very interested.
When it was done, I had a bunch of cracklins, which I strained through a coffee strainer in a mesh sieve.
After that, I had just over a half a reused ghee jar full of pale yellow tallow. It's since cooled to a nice, creamy white color. I used some to brown some ground beef the other night. It's nice to have tallow again. I highly recommend the crock pot method. I basically just set it to low and forgot about it until I heard sizzling. I did stir occasionally, and I took the lid off at the end to allow the last bits of water to evaporate, but all-in-all, it's pretty hands-off, and there wasn't much splattering.
(Yes, I did share some of the cracklins with the dog. He loves me best now.)
This post is part of Real Food Wednesday with Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
How much does it smell? I've heard it has quite an odor.
ReplyDeleteWhen I rendered it in my cast-iron dutch oven on the stovetop, the whole apartment smelled like a Colonial candlemakers or something, but in the crock pot with small pieces, I didn't notice much odor, except maybe the smell of browning hamburger.
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