Guest guest Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 > It will get moldy if you don't get ALL the water out of it while rendering. > It takes forever to get all the water out. But it really does keep once > it is dry. It *can* get rancid supposedly at room temp, but it was > kept for years in the past. Shoot, that's what they made candles out of > (tallow from sheep mostly). My Mom always kept a can of bacon grease next > to the stove. > Heidi Jean I guess I should have mentioned that the suet I was storing was unrendered. I mean it was just a chunk of beautiful white marbly stuff from the inside loin of the pig. Such a nice consistency! I just crumbled some off as I needed it for things like Plum Pudding at Christmas time. Looks like I'd better read up on rendering... BTW I'm assume that rendering is simply for storage purposes? I mean what would keep a person from just tearing off a chunk of fat and throwing it in a fry pan for example.. the water content? Anything else? Also it seems that storing rendered lard at room temp would work better in a dry climate... humidity not good? ~Robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 >BTW I'm assume that rendering is simply for storage purposes? I mean what >would keep a person from just tearing off a chunk of fat and throwing it in >a fry pan for example.. the water content? Anything else? Also it seems that >storing rendered lard at room temp would work better in a dry climate... >humidity not good? ~Robin I would guess yeah, the rendering is for storage. And to get rid of bits of " stuff " in it. Rendered tallow was USED for a lot of things, like making soap, sealing pottages, candles ... that you can't use pieces of lard for. They did store plain lard too though, usually as " salt pork " . The ones I've read about, it was typically submerged in salt water. Which would keep the mold AND the critters out (insects attack pieces of meat and fat left out, as to rats and mice). Salt would also add flavor. If the water is sufficiently salty, chunks of fat will keep forever this way. If you just want to store chunks of fat, they might store without mold if they were sprinkled with salt or baking soda. Or maybe some folks like yourself just luck out and they don't get moldy. I did see a documentary about someone homesteading. He would shoot, say, a deer, and just hang the haunch on his doorstep. I'd guess if there is enough airflow, the surface would dry and it wouldn't mold? Or maybe the mold is tasty ... pepperoni is done in a way that it DOES mold on the outside and that's part of the taste. However, my tallow that I didn't boil enough got nice and moldy, didn't smell great either. Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 12, 2005 Report Share Posted March 12, 2005 At 06:12 PM 3/12/05 -0800, you wrote: >However, my tallow that I didn't boil enough got nice and moldy, didn't >smell great either. Tallow doesn't smell great no matter *what* you do to it. MFJ If I have to be a grownup, can I at least be telekinetic too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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