I rendered some lard from the fat of a grassfed cow back in like August or September. I had purchased the fat sometime in the spring.

I used the oven method, and cooked it for about 2.5 hours. I think it could've gone way longer, but it was bedtime and I didn't want to leave it overnight. Sadly, it didn't cook down enough to get cracklin's. *tear*

I had heard of lard's legendary ability to make tender and flaky pie crusts, so in a fit of complete un-paleoness I tried it out for myself. Sadly, my crust turned out nearly inedible. Very tough, and it actually tasted like beef fat!!

I kept my rendered lard in an old can, covered, on the counter. I found if I kept it in the fridge it was too hard to use. I must admit though, the smell of it put me off a little bit. Maybe my fat was bad, or I didn't render long enough, or I had something smelly in the oven that the fat picked up. I was very timid in using it to cook anything, and my fiance flat-out refused to eat anything cooked with it due to the smell.

I ended up chucking almost all of it because we moved. I really want to try it again though, because I'd like to move away from using dairy and easily oxidizable fats (such as the butter and olive oil I am currently using). I haven't found an easy way to get grassfed stuff in my new location yet, though. I am slowly but surely making my way towards paleo. Just a little bit at a time...

Deano, to make your cracklin's more crispy maybe you could fry them a bit?

deirdra & kallyn,

Thanks for jumping into this thread!

I went and got some cheesecloth at the grocery store. My kitchen smells like absolute heaven as we speak! I cut up small pieces (about the size of large marbles) of the purest white bison fat (from the back), making sure not to leave any meat or other "impurities" in the fat. The consistency of this fat is like soft, chewy, sticky stuff. It sort of resembles those communion bread squares! I used some tallow from my mason jar to coat the bottom of the stainless steel skillet, and then, turning the burner on my gas stove down to as low as possible, I started placing the small cubes of fat into the pan. In just under an hour they have turned to very small pieces of fat that are swimming in a shimmering gold liquid… that smells out of this world! It is a sweet smell that smell like… well, I guess it's what gold must smell like if you were going to eat it or something? It is from the divine! Thanks for the tip on cooking the cracklins… that makes sense.

I have a big freezer bag of dried and pulverized bison round steak meat (that I dried with my dehydrator about a year ago) in my freezer right now. Also in my freezer, I have about five different kinds of berries that I dried in that dehydrator around the same time (talk about a kitchen that smelled good… for over 36 hours I had this mixed berry smell hovering in there, as these berries dried!).

I am going to get some small shallow glass dishes with lids that I can put some of this tallow in and leave it out as you suggest. I know it will be easier to scoop it out to cook eggs and to put into stew, etc.

I think I will need to pour some of this liquid gold into a glass dish that has some of the dried meat and berries in it. ???? What would you suggest I do?

kallyn, you had tallow, not lard… lard is from pigs, tallow is from cows or bison. I don't know if that is why your pie crust didn't come out right. As far as the smell and the taste, perhaps you did not have really "pure" fat when you started (there may have been some muscle meat in the fat still) and perhaps you could have used some cheesecloth to strain out the impurities.

The oven method was SO easy! I just put the fat into two round covered glass oven pans and put them into a 200 degree oven. After 4 hours I took them out and used a metal strainer to separate the cracklins. But, I have read in this thread, and elsewhere that it is better to do it in a skillet (preferably cast iron… although stainless steel seems to work fine and is easier to clean up afterwards). The reason is that when rendering fat, it is important to get the water out. It will keep longer. And that is why pemmican is suppose to last for over 400 years without refrigeration! Do any of you have some more resources on making pemmican? There is another thread that was started a couple years ago that deals with making pemmican, so I may resurrect that thread as well… cuz this one should be just about lard and tallow, since many people are looking for a substitute to butter and olive oil… I know that is what I have wanted to find for a long long time! Anyway, doing it in an open skillet on top the stove is really no big deal. You have to check on it and stir the fat pieces around a bit with a wood spoon about every half hour (so make sure to have a timer handy), and the smell is much more powerful than when doing it in the oven. But, it is still so easy to render fat that I wish I had done it years ago!

Well, I should go stir my tallow… it seems to be rendering very quickly, even on the lowest burner flame I can get! There is almost nothing but liquid golden goodness in that pan! And that smell is pulling me back to the kitchen!

Yes, you can pour your liquid gold into a glass dish containing your dried meat and berries. Pour some in & stir and keep adding more tallow until you like the texture. The link I gave above gives amounts of meat, berries & fat, but a wide range is possible. I've seen native kids use room-temperature (soft, not hot liquid) tallow & mix everything together with their hands. You may find stirring in the liquid gold with a spoon is less messy.

You can google pemmican making.

I found several links:
http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/te...lns/jerkylp.htm
http://www.smokylake.com/history/native/pemmican.htm - this one has a bit of culture to it as well
http://www.premiersystems.com/recip...y-pemmican.html
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/notukeu/pemmican_e.htm - this one has pictures!

And I may be wrong, but I think Ray Audette wrote about how to make it in Neanderthin. The berries will make it keep for less time as they are more perishable.

I know that lard and tallow are different, but I just call it all lard because I can never remember which is which. It's all just rendered animal fat, I say, why mince words! I thought the oven method was extremely easy too, I just wish I'd cooked mine for longer. I did strain it through a fairly fine mesh colander that I have, but it didn't get everything out. That smell just really put me off though. I hope that when I make it again the smell is different! Otherwise I might not be able to eat it just due to bad smell association.

I do have a cast iron, but it's not that large. Ah well. Maybe in the spring once the farmer's markets reopen I can try again.

In the mean time maybe I'll start using bacon fat to cook things! Enjoy your "liquid gold," I'm turning green with envy.

Thanks for this! Somewhere I think I remember reading about making the pemmican very thin (like 1/8th inches or something)... does this mean to make sure there is only about 1/8th of an inch of mix in the bottom of a glass dish? And, there was also something about wax paper. Any of this ring a bell. And, again, thanks so much for helping me with this! How long till it is ready to EAT?!

kallyn,

All you should have to do is google meat processors in your area and you should get quite a list. I got hundreds! You could even try http://yp.mapquest.com/ Just plug in your zip code and put processors or meat processors or something and it may give you a big list (but it will be in order starting with the closest to your zip). You can then call them up and see if any of them butcher any bison. Or you might try finding a bison farm, and seeing who they use for processing. Once you find a processor that butchers bison, you can probably get all the fat you want, since nobody in their right mind would EVER want the fat! It is simply discarded, along with all those organs, etc. BUT... since you are "not in your right mind", you should be able to get this stuff for free! I once had the opportunity to get 35 pounds of pig fat from a processor not too far away... but turned them down, cuz I didn't have the room in my freezer, and because I want the fat from game animals, not pigs! But, I could have acquired all this fat for FREE!

Thanks for all the pemmican links! I am re-reading the thread on this forum as well!

Traditionally it was packed into bison skins, stomachs or intestines and sliced off with a knife, but you can roll it out between 2 sheets of wax paper like a pie crust if the texture is right or if it is thinner, spread it out while it is still warm & cover with wax paper and pat down w/hands or a rolling pin. Make sure it is thoroughly mixed before flattening so that the dried meat can absorb as much tallow as possible.

You can taste it as soon as you are done mixing, but the flavours meld and it will firm up over time and you will probably like the taste & texture better after a day or two.

I'm very sensitive to the flavor of oxidized fats and have not liked the results of rendered lard or tallow. I've only used visceral fat, however - I will have to try it with beef suet which I believe is more highly saturated.

Wyv

What is the best (in terms of nutrients) fat from cows/bison? Is it from the back, or is it the suet (which I guess is from around the kidneys?). Any experts on this? What fat did native americans use (from the bison) to make pemmican that lasted so long (like 400 years or something!)?

The Sioux would only use beef tallow if no bison were available. They claimed you would starve eating beef and considered it only slightly better than jack rabbit. Suet (kindey fat) was much preferred over back fat, however, suet was never used if bone marrow grease was available.

I use a meat processor for my longhorn steers who also processes bisons. I've tried both and couldn't detect any differance in flavor or texture. I have not used bone marrow grease from any other beef breeds as the Texas Longhorn is nutritionally superior to all other breeds. Much like the bison, a longhorn will store most of its fat around the internal organs, marbling in the meat and have very little back fat.

If you want the very best pemmican, according to Sitting Bull's niece and my own personal taste, have a butcher save you the large leg bones of a bison or beef. Crack the bones with a hammer and scoop out the marrow. Melt it down, it's already soft and creamy textured, and mix it with the leanest dried, ground beef you can find and mix in some dried berries. Here on the Gulf Coast we have plenty of wild black berries, which is my preference.

Now, if you really want to get creative and have a great tasting soup, take those same bones and make some Pho Bo, which is a Viet Namese beef soup. An internet seach will bring up the recipe, but remember to simmer the broth when making, never boil. Don't worry about leaving out the rice noodles, its the broth, beef and fresh herbs that make it taste great. Hope this helps and didn't bore anybody.

Not boring at all, Longhorn55! Very informative!

Glad you made it back to this thread! Was wondering about your previous comments on rendering on the stove top versus oven. I tried both, and didn't see a whole lot of difference. The liquid from the oven actually seemed a bit more gold in color, but I rendered that for 4 hours, and the stove top for about 7. I was wondering... I never saw any steam, and when putting my hand above it during the rendering, never felt any. It never bubbled either. I wonder if I rendered too long. I also wonder if I had the heat too low. Was advised to keep it as low as possible. Did I render this wrong? Another question, since you seem to be the leading expert on all of this in this forum. What is "double rendering" all about? I have read that to make sure to get all the moisture out of the tallow, to re-render the fat before mixing with the meat to make pemmican. Is this necessary, and again, if it is, what should I be looking for to accomplish this? Thanks for all your great knowledge and advice!

Also... please explain how one might render the bone marrow? If it is creamy, then do you simply put this heavy cream into a skillet? Is it important to use cast iron versus stainless steel? I am out to make the best pemmican I can. I want to make Sitting Bull proud!

BTW... I called my bison processor and he said he would hold back some kidney suet and the large (femur) bones of the next bison or so that he butchers. He butchers bison for a few different ranchers, so should have some of this bison fat available for me in the not too distant future (hopefully in the next few weeks!). He normally just throws this stuff out! Cuz, of course it is horrible for anyone to eat!

Also, I made a wonderful omelet using this back fat tallow this morning, and it tasted great! Can't wait to get some suet, though! Will want to use that instead. I have tried this tallow in bison stew and to cook eggs... I'm sure it will be fine on hot veggies too! So, goodbye butter, won't be buying that again!

Let me start this answer with a disclaimer. It's much easier to show someone how to do some of this stuff than it to explain it. Kind of reminds me of the time I asked my Grandma for her "dough gods"(donuts) recipe. Her reply was add some of this and some of that. I got all of the ingredients and measured what she started with and then measured what was left. So, now I had her recipe. Wrong! On a humid day I needed more flour and some flours had different moisture content, so she was exactly correct when she told me to add what was needed. And yes, on a low carb diet, I still have homemade donuts and Indian fry bread a couple times a year.

OK, now will try and answer your questions, I believe that you may have rendered your lard to long on the stove. The fat/tallow releases its moisture content very slowly, so its not surprising not to notice any steam. Also, if you didn't notice any bubbling, you're doing it right. If you're doing it on the stove, STOP when the last piece of fat settles to the bottom, because if you keep it on any longer you're cooking it and not rendering it. Double rendering is only good if you didn't get it right the first time. Again, if you try this, you're probably cooking and not rendering.

The Sioux would mix the bone marrow directly with the meat (no berries) if it was going to be used in a short time (couple of months), which was their summer pemmican. Their winter pemmican was made from bone marrow grease rendered down and mixed with dried (very dry) and then stone ground bison, along with dried berries or vegtables such as wild prairie onions.(Guess they knew that they needed some other vitamins during those long winter months). I just misspoke as bone marrow is not rendered but simply melted. Bone marrow starts out as a solid (small bones) or a semi-solid (large bones) and if you melt it down to a liquid, it will cool to a solid. Sorry that I cann't keep my femurs and tibias straight. Think of this process as being similar to making jello, which stated out as boiled beef hooves. Their are no impurities in bone marrow, so you don't need to render those impurities out. The "long hunt" pemmican was bone marrow grease and bison, with no berries or vegies added.

And to answer another person's query, no I didn't personnally know Sitting Bull's niece, but I do know her granddaughter, Sara Pretty Sounding Flute. Now is that some kind of terrific name or what?


Don't know about cast iron versus stainless steel. My Grandma would only use cast iron, however, the Sioux used a tree bark bowl, before they were corrupted by the "white mans" ways. I really believe that the cast iron releases some of its iron content and helps stabilize the lard. As a case in point, 3 years ago, I rendered some Emu fat for my mother-in-law who read that it was good for sore joints. This past week I found one of the Emu lard jars in the back of one of our refrigerators and it was still as fresh as the day it was made.

Merry Christmas Guys!

Wayne

I've been reading this thread with great interest, and would like to thank you all for sparking my ambition! I still have a 30 pound bag of pork fat from our last pig in the freezer, and would like to know if the fat will still be "good", or can it get freezer-burned? I'd like to render it and use it. DH wants it out of the freezer and was just going to take it up the hill for the critters.

Also, how long can rendered lard sit on your counter in a glass jar without spoiling?

Thanks!

Forgot to say- the pork fat has been in the freezer nearly a year.

I think you could still render that fat no problem! As far as letting it sit in your cupboard, my advice is to put small amounts (that you would use in couple weeks) into glass containers (like mason jars) and put them in the freezer right after rendering. Then just take them out one at a time and put in the cupboard. It will be OK in the cupboard for a couple weeks (or perhaps a bit more). I am fairly new to using lard/tallow, but this is what I have read. The bison back fat that I just rendered was sitting in my freezer for over 2 years, and it is just fine. It is now all rendered and in jars in the freezer in small allotments.