Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Busy Day - Tallow Rendering and Cheddar Curds


Tuesday we picked up our meat from the butcher. We had a 22 month old steer butchered. His rail weight was just over 600 pounds. We netted about 350 pounds of meat. With bones and offal there was close to 400 pounds.


I asked them to save the leaf fat. There was 12+ pounds of leaf fat. Today, I chopped it fine and put it in the crock-pot on low. I did this in 3 batches. I ladled the liquid gold into a sterile mason jar by filtering it through a fine mesh strainer hung on the jar funnel. Then would add the next batch of fat. By leaving the jar upside down for 5 - 10 minutes and then turning it right side up the new jar lid will usually seal. These will store well in the basement storage room and will be used for soap, body cream, and cooking.

While letting the fat melt into tallow. I was able to catch up on some housecleaning and make some cheddar curds. The curds are draining and ready to be sliced to cheddar. We enjoy the curds on salad and as snacks. Because you do not take the milk above 100 degrees it is still considered raw. Yum!


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