I make my own soap and I render suet into tallow for the soap. Suet is the prime, clean fat around beef kidneys. It makes a lovely, gentle yet cleansing soap.
To render suet to tallow you need a large pot, salt and water. But it's much easier if the suet is ground. I get mine from the meat shop in October when they're processing game and it's already ground up; like hamburger. I have taken large chunks and put it in the food processor to cut up but what a mess! Suet is like powdered butter and it will end up everywhere and make a horrible mess. So now I buy it already ground up and save my sanity.
Put the suet, some water and salt into the pot and bring it to a boil. There needs to be a goodly amount of water. The objective is to separate out the impurities like bits of muscle or other non-fat stuff from the suet and the boiling water and salt does this. While this mixture is boiling the suet chunks will shrink and you'll have a layer of fat floating on top of the water. If the suet is ground finely enough, this happens in a reasonable amount of time. I've tried to render 1/2 inch chunks of suet which took almost all day! Do not let the water boil out which it may if there's not enough to start with.
When it's done, pour this mixture into a pan, or put the pot somewhere where the fat, now tallow, will solidify and separate from the water. Then you can 'peel' off the tallow and what's left in the water is some cooked chunks of non-fat stuff that the birds like. You may also have to scrape off the bottom of the tallow slab. I'll mix this stuff with a little peanut butter and set it out for the birds.
This is probably way more than people want to know about rendering suet. And I'm not sure why it would need to be rendered for chickens. They would do well with the bits of meat and things.
One thing to remember if you do try to render suet is that you'll need substantial heat to get things melted. And fat burns and care must be taken to never leave this unattended because it's hot and dangerous and could potentially catch on fire. I personally use lots of water with mine and just do extra separation. It's easier in the winter 'cause I use the outside as a freezer to solidify it.
And if you are a soap maker it is wonderful for soap.
Mary
To render suet to tallow you need a large pot, salt and water. But it's much easier if the suet is ground. I get mine from the meat shop in October when they're processing game and it's already ground up; like hamburger. I have taken large chunks and put it in the food processor to cut up but what a mess! Suet is like powdered butter and it will end up everywhere and make a horrible mess. So now I buy it already ground up and save my sanity.
Put the suet, some water and salt into the pot and bring it to a boil. There needs to be a goodly amount of water. The objective is to separate out the impurities like bits of muscle or other non-fat stuff from the suet and the boiling water and salt does this. While this mixture is boiling the suet chunks will shrink and you'll have a layer of fat floating on top of the water. If the suet is ground finely enough, this happens in a reasonable amount of time. I've tried to render 1/2 inch chunks of suet which took almost all day! Do not let the water boil out which it may if there's not enough to start with.
When it's done, pour this mixture into a pan, or put the pot somewhere where the fat, now tallow, will solidify and separate from the water. Then you can 'peel' off the tallow and what's left in the water is some cooked chunks of non-fat stuff that the birds like. You may also have to scrape off the bottom of the tallow slab. I'll mix this stuff with a little peanut butter and set it out for the birds.
This is probably way more than people want to know about rendering suet. And I'm not sure why it would need to be rendered for chickens. They would do well with the bits of meat and things.
One thing to remember if you do try to render suet is that you'll need substantial heat to get things melted. And fat burns and care must be taken to never leave this unattended because it's hot and dangerous and could potentially catch on fire. I personally use lots of water with mine and just do extra separation. It's easier in the winter 'cause I use the outside as a freezer to solidify it.
And if you are a soap maker it is wonderful for soap.
Mary
