Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Cooking Forum => Topic started by: Fox on October 25, 2020, 10:27:56 am
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Why don’t people eat deer fat? The people I learned to hunt from throw all the fat out ( but then again they also throw my favorite cut of meat, the heart out ) but anyway do you guys do anything with your deer fat?
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Many folks throw the skins, shanks, spine, neck, sinews, head and bones away. All are useful or have value in some way but they just don't bother with them. I always heard from early on that deer fat left on the meat will give a rancid taste. Whether right or wrong I've always eliminated deer fat in the processing.
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Seems like most of the folks here render out the fat for a wide variety of uses, dressing hides, soap, grease, cooking, waterproofing, sealing bows and other wood. Like TimBo said, cut it into little chunks, and let it cook down, skim off the liquid and let it cool. JW Halverson mentioned that you can add water to the cooking process (before starting) or after the fat has cooled and boiling again to get a nice white color.
Hawkdancer
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...but don't add water to hot, rendered fat! (A)
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...but don't add water to hot, rendered fat! (A)
(lol) (lol) :o
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Maybe I should have put (BEFORE STARTING) in block caps! (lol) -C-BOOM!
Hawkdancer
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yeah i did that once.... AND IT GAVE ME THIS SCAR!!!! *gasp!* lol but yeah... kaboom!
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I use my deer fat for patch lube in shooting flintlocks, but that uses maybe an ounce a year. Most of my deer fat gets rendered out for making soap.
Like Hawkdancer said, I put the finely minced or ground deer fat into a large kettle of salted water and let it boil away for hours and hours. Do not run out of water, or it will burn and give your rendered tallow a strong stink. The whole mess is strained through muslin cloth and set outside on a cold night to set up. The fat floats, turns hard and is paper white, with very little odor.
The solids you strained out with the muslin fabric can be put in a roasting pan and popped in the oven at 210-220 degrees F to further render out. But this fat will be darker and have a stronger smell. The less meat and connective in the fat, the less odor/taste/color you will have in the final product. Fat that is liquified by frying has been "tried".
Once it has been tried, and the last solids strained out again, you can put the fat into a pot of water (preferably more water than fat) and boiled for several hours to clean out some of the stink and impurities. It cleans up a little, but it won't be the white, nearly odorless stuff you get the first time through.
This gives you two grades of rendered deer tallow. If I had to eat one, it would be the first batch rendered by boiling. But I have access to pork and beef fat for making sausage, and chicken fat for frying (Oh baby, taters fried in chicken fat...he'p me Lordy!) I will use the finer grade for soap, and the lesser grade for patch lube, leather dressing, etc.
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BP felt wad lube 50/50 deer fat and beeswax.
Candles
Deer fat is awful. It feels like wax in your mouth
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BP felt wad lube 50/50 deer fat and beeswax.
Candles
Deer fat is awful. It feels like wax in your mouth
Yeah, extremely "tallowy".