How do I render large quantities of fat?
Suppose I have many pounds of fat to render. (Sometimes people have 100 pounds!) How can I do this efficiently?
Should I use a pot on the stove, a slow cooker, or the oven? How many pounds should I render in each batch? Do I need to add water?
Best Answer
Unless you've got industrial type equipment, I wouldn't do more than about 1-1.5 lbs at a time. Here's a hint, cube the fat (1 inch cubes) and then partially freeze it. 45 - 75 minutes or so in the freezer will give you fat you can handle without it melting and that can be coarsly ground in a food processor or meat grinder without making a gross mess. Some people add water, I wouldn't. Just keep the flame (or burner) very low. Use a heavy pot, preferably cast iron. If you do it nice and slow you should get cracklin and tallow that barely needs to be clarified, or not at all. Figure about an hour on the low end up to two hours for the fat to completely render.
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Quick Answer about "How do I render large quantities of fat?"
Place the fat into your pan, then add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan by about half an inch. Place the pan over a medium flame, until the water starts to boil, then turn heat down to low. Cook gently for 1-2 hours, stirring every so often until most of the fat has rendered.Can you render fat for too long?
If the fat is left too long the cracklings will start to burn causing your lard to turn a deep yellow and ends up having a piggie, chicharon type of smell and taste to it instead of being odorless. If you're using the lard to fry, this isn't a big deal.What is the best way to render beef fat?
Cut fat into 1-2 inch portions. Place into a large saucepan or pot and place over low heat for a few hours, stirring occasionally. After the beef has rendered, while it is still hot, carefully strain the tallow through a fine mesh strainer into a container. Allow to cool in the refrigerator.Do you render fat on high or low heat?
Put a small amount of water at the bottom of the pot you are using to render the fat (around 1/4th of an inch). Just enough to cover the bottom. This prevents the fat from browning as we begin to heat it up. Turn the pot on a medium low heat and let the fat gently warm up and begin to liquify.🔵 How To Render Beef Fat - Beef Tallow
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Answer 2
If I was to try and render the huge amounts of fat you have hinted at I would do it in water. You'd need a suitably large pan obviously to fit the quantity needed.
- Fill pan with fat.
- Cover fat in water.
- Simmer slowly for a good few hours.
- Leave to set in fridge.
- Remove the now solid fat from the top.
- Depending on the outcome of the above fat, re-melt and strain through a cheesecloth.
Most of the sediment will end up on the bottom of the pan but some may get trapped in the top layer.
Why?
Well if you think about when you're making a meat stock for example, you simmer the contents for hours. Fat floats to the top, you ladle it out then pass the result through fine sieve. All you're trying to do it the same but instead of a tasty bottom stock you want the fat.
This method is more likely to give a pure, clean and untainted fat. Roasting or frying is going to cause burnt bit's of meat etc, the flavor of which I'm sure will be present in the resulting fat. Also any smoke cause by the roasting method is again going to taint the end product.
Regarding the water at the bottom, an untested thought/thory would be to add a couple of pig trotters to the mix. The resulting gelatin will in theory set the water solid at the bottom also grabbing all the sediment's and other juices. Then allowing you to turn the entire pan over heat slightly with a blowtorch and remove the pan. Then with a warm knife slice the bottom(now top) layer off to remove all the unwanted stuff.
I see no reason why this method couldn't be done on an infinite scale only limited by pan size.
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