Joined
·
179 Posts
Let's say I'm somewhere without access to a stove and I just hunted an animal. How to melt the animal's fat to make oil for cooking using a fire pit without burning the fat.
Melt animal fat to make cooking oil outdoors
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
assuming you will at least have a pot of some sort (boiling water, soups, etc.).
The process is called ‘rendering’. You chop off the animal fat is small bits and pieces (a meat grinder works here but chopping it also works), put in crockpot (when at home), skillet/pot and cook on low heat until you have lots of fat oil. Strain into a jar and use when needed. You can eat the left over parts. I put mine in salad. If you add a little bit of salt to the rendered fat oil, it will stay longer before going rancid.
on the fire pit, raise the skillet/pot high enough over the fire where the fat doesn’t seer into the skillet/pot. Stirring occasionally. Be careful as it will pop. This could take several hours.
you can also make a pasty soap from rendered fat mixed with lye water. Plenty of recipes on,one for that.
The process is called ‘rendering’. You chop off the animal fat is small bits and pieces (a meat grinder works here but chopping it also works), put in crockpot (when at home), skillet/pot and cook on low heat until you have lots of fat oil. Strain into a jar and use when needed. You can eat the left over parts. I put mine in salad. If you add a little bit of salt to the rendered fat oil, it will stay longer before going rancid.
on the fire pit, raise the skillet/pot high enough over the fire where the fat doesn’t seer into the skillet/pot. Stirring occasionally. Be careful as it will pop. This could take several hours.
you can also make a pasty soap from rendered fat mixed with lye water. Plenty of recipes on,one for that.
Joined
·
2,996 Posts
like cooking anything over an open fire, you cook witth the established fire off to the side, and use the coals, you move them under your pot to get the right amount of convection heat and add/subtract as needed.
you try not to actually cook over an active flame.
you try not to actually cook over an active flame.
Joined
·
4,015 Posts
As others have intimated, the key to successful rendering is keeping the heat low. Don't burn it or scorch it.
For cooking/frying, dry rendering is the way to go, but for soap making or baking, you want to wet render and purify your tallow to remove the beef taste and odor.
Wet rendering and purifying tallow
I will second low and slow heat for rendering. Tallow renders at 140ºF, but you will want to get it to 220ºF long enough to drive off any water. No need for any higher heat than that to get the job done.
Joined
·
23,422 Posts
Double boiler. My titanium backpacking cook set can be used as a double boiler - in case I need to make salves. Cook on coals
Joined
·
1,245 Posts
Sometimes it's possible to kill two birds with the same stone.
I've taken to collecting the tallow that rises to the top of the cooked critter overnight (provided that you're cooking in a stew pot with water, and the stew was able to cool sufficiently).
Even used some of this wet rendered tallow to oil my new boots, as well as fry eggs and vegetables.
While the salt from such preparations is of concern, I've found that it's a matter of playing the cards you're dealt.
When I'm cooking up some venison, there usually isn't the amount of tallow that can be collected compared with farmed cow or chicken... So the rendering used to produce lard is not often possible.
I've taken to collecting the tallow that rises to the top of the cooked critter overnight (provided that you're cooking in a stew pot with water, and the stew was able to cool sufficiently).
Even used some of this wet rendered tallow to oil my new boots, as well as fry eggs and vegetables.
While the salt from such preparations is of concern, I've found that it's a matter of playing the cards you're dealt.
When I'm cooking up some venison, there usually isn't the amount of tallow that can be collected compared with farmed cow or chicken... So the rendering used to produce lard is not often possible.
The hog butchering I've experienced involves cutting the fat into half inch cubes (including hide) and boiling in a large cast iron cauldron. These are about two feet tall and the lard is far enough away from the open flame below so that I've never seen any of the grease catch on fire. The rendering lard is at a vigorous boil (also produces cracklings).
By the same token I have caught grease on fire in a skillet on an electric range. I would guess that it might involve the distance from the flame plus for much of the boil in the rendering process, the temperature while boiling in the initial stages stays on the cool side while the water content is boiling off. It might also involve the rounded (globe) shape of the cauldron which might keep the flammable oil vapors from reaching the flame?
By the same token I have caught grease on fire in a skillet on an electric range. I would guess that it might involve the distance from the flame plus for much of the boil in the rendering process, the temperature while boiling in the initial stages stays on the cool side while the water content is boiling off. It might also involve the rounded (globe) shape of the cauldron which might keep the flammable oil vapors from reaching the flame?
Joined
·
40 Posts
Not to derail the post, but I've been listening to a podcast by a guy in Arkansas called Bear Grease. He talks about hunting, wildlife, snakes, American pioneers and history. He said bear grease was once used as a way to predict the weather and as currency. He has some good episodes talking about Daniel Boone.
Joined
·
5,328 Posts
Like others said,low and slow,stirring.
Another option is cooking the animal by boiling,then cooling and let the "fat" rise to the top,skim off.If cold enough,it will form a solid disk.
Depending on the time of year,lots of wild animals don't have much fat.
I know deer have the fat mainly between the meat and hide,it is not very tastey,and usually removed.
If this is a wilderness,survival situation,be more concerned about preserving the meat depending on the size.
You say without access to a stove. Assuming you also don't have a cooking pot here is a method I have played with for deer tallow.
I found a flat rock that was roughly 10 inches by 6 inches and two inches thick with both faces being very close to flat. A stone that is thin and has a flat face of any size is very rare around here so it isn't something you will just find every day whenever you need one.
I piled the rock on top of other rocks with one end up hill and over hanging the rocks below. I lit a fire and then moved hot coals under the flat rock and heated it up. I put very small chunks of tallow on to the hot end of the rock and kept moving them around. The fat liquefied and ran down the rock and dripped off the low end. I caught the fat in a tin can(any container that is water tight will work) As a piece of tallow had all the fat melted out and started to brown I took it off the stone and put on a fresh piece.
It was a very slow process. It took an entire afternoon to get maybe 4 ounces of deer lard. A bigger stone would have been helpful. As I said a good flat rock like that isn't common around here. If a person really wanted to do this they would find the perfect rock, set it up and cook the lard in the same spot every year, and if you use the same rock every year you may end up carving a flatter spot on the rock and groves to help guide the melted fat. So such a situation isn't all that practical. But in areas where you have slate it may be much easier to find a suitable rock
I found a flat rock that was roughly 10 inches by 6 inches and two inches thick with both faces being very close to flat. A stone that is thin and has a flat face of any size is very rare around here so it isn't something you will just find every day whenever you need one.
I piled the rock on top of other rocks with one end up hill and over hanging the rocks below. I lit a fire and then moved hot coals under the flat rock and heated it up. I put very small chunks of tallow on to the hot end of the rock and kept moving them around. The fat liquefied and ran down the rock and dripped off the low end. I caught the fat in a tin can(any container that is water tight will work) As a piece of tallow had all the fat melted out and started to brown I took it off the stone and put on a fresh piece.
It was a very slow process. It took an entire afternoon to get maybe 4 ounces of deer lard. A bigger stone would have been helpful. As I said a good flat rock like that isn't common around here. If a person really wanted to do this they would find the perfect rock, set it up and cook the lard in the same spot every year, and if you use the same rock every year you may end up carving a flatter spot on the rock and groves to help guide the melted fat. So such a situation isn't all that practical. But in areas where you have slate it may be much easier to find a suitable rock
Joined
·
1,245 Posts
Deer tallow is where the "gamey" taste resides.
If you are picky, maybe that's a problem.
I've found that in wilderness survival, and a little bit of fat starvation... That deer fat gets to tasting damn good.
Interestingly, deer tallow 'cures' a lot harder than beef fat or lard... I had to re-melt the deer tallow to treat my boots. Seems to be holding up as well as mink oil.
In the past when I used deer rendered deer tallow it did an amazing job to make cast iron pans non stick. When ever I cooked something that would normally stick I would rub a block of tallow over the pan, then wipe it out, then add whatever fat I was going to cook with then add the food. In that case it had almost no affect the flavor.
However, starvation makes everything taste good.
I agree, rendered deer tallow sets up much harder than pig lard. It was able to be left in a block on the kitchen shelf in the middle of summer without melting.
I tried mixing some with pine pitch to make a wood finish that I had read about. I just ended up with a big mess.
Joined
·
1,245 Posts
Ew.
I'd probably starve first...
In starvation situations where I've found myself... I remained amazingly finicky in spite of my hunger... and dreaming about food...
It doesn't have to be a starvation scenario... I try to get by just eating what I can grow... as a matter of course... so... fat starvation is never far away... As a result... bambi oil cooked into my veggies always tastes good.
I'd probably starve first...
In starvation situations where I've found myself... I remained amazingly finicky in spite of my hunger... and dreaming about food...
It doesn't have to be a starvation scenario... I try to get by just eating what I can grow... as a matter of course... so... fat starvation is never far away... As a result... bambi oil cooked into my veggies always tastes good.
Joined
·
179 Posts
If you are picky, then wilderness survival is not for you. That's the idea of going somewhere for camping, with nothing but bare necessities and mother nature, to liberate you from the agitation and unimportant problems you encounter in 21 century and to simulate how people lived in far past. And the people that actually needed to survive had one rule: "If it is not poisonous, I eat it".
When I registered on this forum I had in mind this type of iconic survival, Robinson Crusoe kind of survival.
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
