bear fat

[ffnh243]

I thought there was a thread here about how to render bear fat. I cant find it and a friend just delivered 5 pounds for me. can any body out there point me the right way?

 

[rabjr]

http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/258594/

 

[Zonie]

Did you see these posts?
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...p?tid/256885/post/984089/fromsearch/1/#984089
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...tid/258594/post/1008881/fromsearch/1/#1008881

 

[Billnpatti]

If you want to end up with bear lard, just render the pieces of fat in a skillet. The higher heat will cause the fat molecules to combine into larger molecules which will form a solid lard. Scoop the cracklins out of the hot oil in the skillet. Allow it to cool and then place in a pot with some water. Bring it to a simmer to clean the salt and other stuff from the lard. Allow it to cool and separate the lard from the water. You may need to do this more than once to get the lard nice and clean but it will be a nice white when you are done.

On the other hand, if you want to get bear OIL, you will have to use a lower heat to avoid forming the larger molecules that form lard. The best way to do this is to put the fat into a pot of water and gently simmer it to get the oil without forming lard. Allow the pot to cool and then separate off the oil from the top of the water. Strain off any particules through a piece of cloth and let it sit in a bottle to clear up. It will be cloudy when you first separate it from the water but the larger fat particules will settle to the bottom of the bottle. Carefully decant the clear oil off the settled stuff and you will have some great oil for all kinds of uses.

 

[rabjr]

Yep, I stayed around 175ish degrees for a temp to get good clear oil. :thumbsup:

 

[watopeka]

I think i made some lard with the first batch it is now sitting in the fridge or should it take it out and let it decant in normal temperture or heat it up again so water would saperate better. I have another 2 pounds in the freezer but i whant oil i am sure it whont make much but its a learning process , so do i cover it with water and how long do i let it cook and do i repeat it it a few times or its a one time process
Thank
Denhis

 

[watopeka]

if it turned to lard can i reheat slowly with water and pick up the oil or i am stuck with lard i would like it cleaner so by heating it and passing it trough cheese cloth would it help it for cleaning or placing in jars and leaving on the counter

 

[rabjr]

Really have to watch the heat and make sure its not to high, you just want to coax the oil out of the cells. If you did it to high and now have what I call bear crisco, well thats what you got still usable! Just not the oil you want.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Normally you heat the fat up until it begins "bleeding" oil, but you don't heat it up so much that the oil turns to a solid grease( shortening). I don't know if you can "save" this lard/oil by reheating. Over heating oil thickens it, and I don't know that the process can be reversed. Let us know what you discover.

You can use coffee filters to filter out the lard/oil when its rendered. You don't have to buy cheese cloth for this purpose, if you already have coffee filters in the kitchen. I have used both products, as well as washed T-shirts, strainers for coffee, and pasta, depending on what size debris I am trying to separate from the mix.

I found using the coffee filters- which are dirt cheap to buy-- seem to clean the oils the most thoroughly of all the products, including cheese cloth. I had to fold over many layers of cheese cloth to get the same result that one coffee filter did on oil.

I simply put a paper(?) coffee filter into a wire strainer over a bowl, and pour the rendered oil through the filter, letting it slowly go through the filter and into the bowl below. I let the oil cool in the bowl some, and pour it into jars for storage.

You can re-heat several jars of oil with the lids off in boiling water, to raise the temperature of the oil, all at the same time, before putting the caps back on the jars. When the jars cool, a partial vacuum is created inside the jar, which helps keep the jars lids sealed against any bacteria that might otherwise get into your oil. Once those jars are closed and sealed, you can store the oil almost infinitely. :thumbsup:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

if it turned to lard can i reheat slowly with water and pick up the oil or i am stuck with lard i would like it cleaner so by heating it and passing it trough cheese cloth would it help it for cleaning or placing in jars and leaving on the counter

You might try leaving a jar of the lard someplace warm and see if you get some oil slowly separation out. Based on the description by someone of how he separated the oil out of his carefully rendered and cleaned bear grease, I set a large jar of ham grease in a sunny window. Over a few weeks, I got maybe as much as a quarter of it as oil that I periodically decanted. Eventually the oil production slowed down, and I just kept the rest of the grease in the 'fridge for lard. If I recall correctly, the guy doing he bear grease just leaves the jars in his workshop, and oil keeps slowly separating. He said it's kept for some years with no apparent change in properties or odor. And before anyone worries about salt in my ham grease, I simmered the cleaned grease over two changes of water - it was a clean white and had only a faint "oily" smell at the end.

Just found Swampy's page: http://nimrodsplace.com/lewisandclark25.html
It looks like pretty similar to the results that I saw years ago.

Regards,
Joel

 

[watopeka]

thanks guy's,
good news i did not over cook it, it was dark when in liquid so i though it was overcook, this morning i took it out of the fridge and it's almost white and consistency of very very soft butter. So i am going to wash it a few times for salt and impurities. Than let her sit for a while and pick up that OIL
Thanks again
Denis

 

[Rifleman1776]

Luck you. Bear fat/oil is the classic patch lube. Also good for other lube uses.

 

[BrownBear]

Also good for other lube uses.

I've never seen it done with grizzly or brown bear, but even the thought of black bear lard makes my mouth water something fierce. By a huge margin the best homemade donuts and pie crusts I've ever had were made with bear fat. Ah man..... :applause:

 

[Billnpatti]

How you render your fat will determine whether you end up with oil or lard. If you fry the fat, you will get lard but, if you render the fat at a much lower temp, such as genty simmering it in water you will get oil rather than lard. Which you use will determine what kind of lube you get when you mix it with the bees wax and Ballistol. I was given some bear lard and I mixed it with bees wax and Ballistol to make a bullet lube. To make this lube, you will need to put the bees wax into a can and place it into a pot of simmering water. When it is melted add the lard or oil and stir well to mix. Remove it from the heat and continue to stir. Be sure to take the mixture outside before adding the Ballistol (That stuff really stinks). When the mixture starts to thicken, slowly add the Ballistol and continue to stir. Then add about a tablespoon of Murphy's Oil Soap and whip the mixture until it forms a nice creamy lube. Put the lube into a container and you have a great bullet and patch lube. You can control the thickness of your lube by adjusting the amount of Ballistol or oil.

 

[tg]

How much salt is in bear or animal fat? they do not sweat as people do if persperation has anything to do with the salt content in an animals fatty tissue.

 

[rabjr]

Before you go mixing different concoctions, think seriously of rendering some deer fat this coming season. You can make a very good all natural patch lube by using the bear oil alone, mixed with beeswax or mixed with deer tallow. I've settled on 1 part deer tallow, 1 1/2 parts bear oil to make a very good patch grease for hunting. :thumbsup:

 

[rafterob]

There should be no salt in the fat. Salted water is used to clean rancid or used fats by cooking the fats down with it. The salt helps to precipitate any contaminants which then fall to the bottom layer and can be skimmed off. I have never had to use salt for fresh or aged animal fats.

 

[tg]

That sounds more reasonable, thanks

 

[Rifleman1776]

The deer I have killed and helped process, finding deer fat would be harder than finding Elmo. The words 'deer fat' almost make an oxymoron and we have enuf of those around already. :wink:

 

[rabjr]

Ours have a generous helping.
http://www.nimrodsplace.com/nefowler31.html