Tallow candle experiment - The best laid plans of mice and men ...

[Ohio Rusty]

For the last several years everytime I cooked beef ribs in the crockpot with beef bones, I would take the hardened fat and the marrow fat off the top and save it. I finally had alot of the saved fat so I thought I would make tallow candles. I rendered the fat several times in water to purify the fat removing all impurities. Once pure, I added a pint jar of pure white medical grade beeswax pellets to the rendered liquid fat, heated the whole thing so it was all liquid then let it cool outside where it was cool. What I ended up with was about 3 pounds of the perfect patch lube !! It never got hard like a candle should be. Sigh .... This is not what I was hoping for. I guess in the long run, it is perfectly edible if you were needing some fat for your frying pan to cook up squirrel or venison in camp. It smells really great as beef fat should.
So I went to the butcher last week and acquired 5 pounds of REAL beef fat right off the cow and I'll give my candle experiment another go here soon. In the mean time, I'll fill a couple of quart jars of the patch lube fat. Hopefully, I can find some small tin containers and give it away ...... This is 10 lifetimes of patch lube and I surely only need one small tin for myself.

 

[Daryl Crawford]

The leaf fat (near the kidney) might be the better fat to try to make tallow out of.

 

[necchi]

Good luck with the candles, honest.
I think the terms we use today for Tallow, Suet and Fat have morphed compared to historical use when select fats from select areas of animals processed each had a specific use.
Even suet from the store for bird feeders is different than what Great-grandma got off the kidneys.
There were Candles and Betty lamps for a reason,

 

[TechMoron]

Try deer tallow. It's so wax-like to start with you might not even need to add beeswax.

 

[Ohio Rusty]

Here is what I ended up with, about 48 ounces of the rendered fat patch lube. I bet this would burn well in something like a betty lamp.
Ohio Rusty ><>

 

[rafterob]

I was a chef for many years and had a ready supply of good beef fat. I made tallow candles for many years, poured in jelly jars with macrame holders for camping. Back in the old days when tallow candles were common, they would wrap them up and keep them in the ground to keep cool in the warmer months because they are not quite firm enough to handle hotter air temps. In a jar, it doesn't matter too much.

 

[Bnewberry]

Try deer tallow. It's so wax-like to start with you might not even need to add beeswax.

That has been my experience.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Good luck. I hope yer wife likes the house stinked up.

 

[Rob M.]

Cool. Ive used beer cans and pop cans to make candles with the fat ...I just filled the cans then put a cotton string and hung it from a stick or pencil till the fat , suet, solidified.. Works good . You can use jars too. Some fats so can pop the candle out of the can , cut side if need be , but others I left in the can or jar , the softer ones . The deer fat candles drove me crazy with its smell ! I love my deer meat !

 

[bpd303]

I've made tallow candles by mixing in paraffin wax to get the mix solid enough to make dipped candles. Sorry it's been a few decades and I can't remember the proportions I used.

 

[Cvkotvkse]

Just poured off a bunch of bison fat from browning some ground buffalo for tacos, etc., BEFORE seasoning the meat. Put it in a jar in freezer... I suspect a lot of it may be beef fat, but I'm looking foŕward to seeing how some patches lubed with it will work. Have been using Crisco and generic subs for it for 37 years...