Rendering Fat
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Chop the suet or meat trimmings finely with a knife or meat chopper.
If the fat has a strong odor, soak it in salt water for a while.
Render and strain
Add a pinch of baking soda while rendering.
Render the fat in a double boiler or in a pan in the oven at 300°F (150°C) until the fat can be pressed from the tissue.
Strain the clear fat, squeezing out as much as possible from the cracklings.
Store
Store the fat in clean, tightly covered tin pails or crocks in a cool place.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Suet or meat trimmings
- Supply the fat that melts out to become the rendered fat.
- Baking soda
- Helps neutralize acids in the fat, which can reduce off odors during rendering.
The step that matters
Rendering at low heat. Rendering slowly at moderate heat melts the fat out of the tissue without scorching it. Overheating can brown or burn the fat, giving it a bitter, unpleasant flavor and shortening its storage life.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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