Rendering Beef Fat- Lots of it

[barefootfarmer]

We are in the process of butchering 3 steers right now. I've gathered about 40lbs of tallow so far, maybe more. Never rendered anything but lard.

Online instructions say to chill it, then chop it, then heat it on low.
Since it is fresh off the cow, can I just put the whole mess in an electric turkey roaster (anyone seeing how much I love using those things?) and work it that way?
What's the point of chilling it and then chopping it?

Oh my gosh. How long will this stuff last? Might need to learn how to make candles or something .

I would appreciate any tips. So much for spending the day making more tomato sauce and apple butter.

[claytonpiano]

I drop mine in the crock pot over night. Seems to work well.......but, tallow STINKS! Mine is chilled when I get it from the butcher, but would think you could just use it fresh. That is what we do with the lard from the pigs. Why wouldn't that work? Also, ever made tallow candles?? I want to do that next time to see if they stink as bad as it does in the crock pot!

[barefootfarmer]

I have a huge crock pot and the tallow from one steer won't fit in it. I did just cut out the bits of meat and dumped the entire load into my electric roaster. It almost filled it to the top, it's an 18 quart one. I set it as low as it would go...we'll see what happens. It's a nice yellow tallow and the smell reminded me of steak.

I think once I'm done I'm going to try to form it into blocks and freeze some that way. Does Muller's Lane Farm make tallow candles?

[terrilynn]

I think the reason for chilling it is so it cuts easier.  Never done tallow before either, can't wait to hear how it goes!

[barefootfarmer]

I ended up putting all the tallow from one cow straight into the electric 18 quart roaster. It didn't quite fill it, but almost.

Then I did some chores, came back and the tallow from the other cow had semi-solidified. At that point I could see that there is actually a connective tissue that holds all the fat together, so to speak. I peeled back that tissue and scraped out the fat, putting it into a thick bottomed stainless steel stock pot.

The tallow in the pot rendered quicker. Probably because I freed it from the connective tissue. It wasn't hard to work with the tallow in the roaster though. At some point I was able to combine it in the stock pot, after straining off the liquid as I went along to make room. At this point I have 19 pints filled and it looks like lots more liquefying in the pot.

So, I'm storing the bulk in the freezer, with a few in the fridge. I really wanted to form some into bricks to use later, pre-weighed for soap or candles, but it all happened too quick and I didn't have any appropriate molds close by. Next time.

Where does everyone else store it? I know ghee is shelf stable for at least a year, I really appreciate that. I can't find a good source for how long tallow is shelf stable without going rancid. Anyone know?