Hi Folks,
I tripped across an excellent article / blog on rendering fat for use in baking and cooking. While I have never gotten around to doing any rendering directly (more about that below*) rendering fat from meat products is an old tradition and a good one in terms of making complete use of the meat you choose to eat. I particularly like the author's emphasis on humanely raised animal sources. Properly rendered fat is very stable and stores in the refrigerator for a very, very long time. Old time pie crusts were always made with lard - it was what gave them their wonderful flaky texture. Simple put you place chopped or ground up fat in water (I've also read a long time ago that some folks did it in milk to make it sweeter for use), until the fat literally releases an oil (fat) liquid. This fat is solid when chilled. I like her use of a crockpot for the process.
Clarified butter is a similar process, which separates the milk solids from the clear yellow gold of the butter. Clarified butter lasts longer in the frig.
http://www.cheeseslave.com/how-to-render-lard-tallow/
*In a sense I indirectly render fat when I make broth from left over chicken or turkey carcases. I put everything into the pot with the water, veggies, herbs etc. and simmer until it falls apart. Strain, pour into mason jars and store in the frig or freezer (I actually got around to canning some of my turkey broth this past winter). When you make broth this way you have a LOT of fat left in the liquid. Here is the point about fat - it is a seal on the top of refrigerated or frozen broth - think of it as anti-bacterial WHEN YOU pour it into the mason jar and cap while boiling hot. The fat rises to the surface when cooled often as much as a 1/2 inch or more. The fat is then easy to scrap off before using the broth and you have almost fat-free broth for soups and stews.
Aside from the anti-bacterial aspect, using the fats from the bird in making broth imparts an extra nice flavor to it.
If you began with a natural sourced chicken or turkey you could take that fat from the soup, and clarify it with water, strain and store as you would the meat fat. This is called "Schmaltz".
Schmaltz is rendered chicken or other poultry fat and the process is similar to producing lard and Jewish cooking would not be so well appreciated without it.
http://theshiksa.com/2010/06/01/schmaltz-and-gribenes/
A final note about fats - there is always going to be discussions about which fats you should and should not have and whether plant based are always better than meat based (some certainly are NOT because of the processes used). There is something to be said for simplified processes using the basic source and just making excellent use of everything you have and prepared as simple as possible. Schmaltz for example was a matter of frugality. But so also is using every bit of a food source as much as you can.
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Erin and all - found a reasonably reliable source saying that the chicken fat can be stored in the frig for 6 months. You can always store some in the freezer and then move to the refrigerator as needed. If chicken fat can be stored this way then you can presume the lard or tallow could also.
http://foodpreservation.about.com/od/Preserving-Fats-Oils/r/Rendere...
Thank you!
Great idea! I haven't been to her sight in a long time. Thanks, Catherine!
You are welcome.
I may not get a chance to try that soon, so let me know how it turns out. Should be one of the easiest things to do :-)
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