Venison Tallow questions

[ty_in_ND]

Hey all!  2 quick questions about venison tallow (this is my 1st attempt at it):

1) Did I make it correctly?  I slow cooked the raw tallow that I diced finely for many hours and poured it off into a glass bowl after straining it.  There was a little bit of meat in it, but that didn't seem like an issue from the quick research I did.  I also added a little water at the beginning to make sure the bottom didn't scorch, but there was no water at the bottom of the bowl after removing the tallow, so I'm guessing all the water boiled off.  It's an nice off-white color, but the consistency is a little loose.  The pictures I've seen of deer tallow seems to resemble a more solid fat like cocoa butter, but mine ended up a little closer to Crisco/vegetable shortening (a touch harder, but still "scoopable", not at all hard enough for me to break apart).  This is at room temperature, so maybe the pics I saw were of tallow that came out of the fridge?

2) Have any of you tried cooking with deer tallow?  The same tallow I just made has a nice flavor to it.  I've heard and read so many things about deer fat having a bad flavor, so I was planning on using the whole batch for making soap and lotion.  However, as an experiment, I fried some eggs in a bit of tallow and they turned out great!  Since I ended up with about 2.5 lbs of rendered tallow, I have more than enough for my soaping needs, so I think I will try to use it in a cookie recipe that I usually use Crisco, since mine does have a similar thickness.  Maybe it doesn't taste bad because the doe wasn't ancient and I do live in a place where there's no shortage of crops for the deer to eat (versus those deer that live in more wooded areas)?

Thanks in advance for your input!

[Hawkdancer]

My guess is that you did it right, especially if it tasted good!  Almost all cooking type fats are scoop able at room temperature, some like coconut oil are almost liquid.  I think the off white color comes from the meat scraps, and/or using all of the tallow of the animal.  I rendered out about. 5 lbs of beef fat from various sources, and get a very light beige white color.  Some of the more experienced guys like BowEd can offer a better idea, maybe.
Hawkdancer

[JW_Halverson]

You can further refine it by adding it back into a pot with an equal amount of water and getting it up to a rolling boil.  Let it boil for a good ten minutes or so, then shut off the heat and allow the pan to cool outdoors overnight.  The water will dissolve much of the odorous compounds, any gelatinous proteins, and meat bits, leaving you with a whiter, cleaner fat. 

It will be a bit stiffer than Crisco at room temp, that's normal.  It will turn rancid with contact with oxygen and heat. Best to store larger quantities in the freezer.

To get the cleanest and whitest rendered tallow, ONLY boil it in water.  Frying it off will only darken it and intensify taste and odor.  You can boil off the best tallow for candles (still might wanna mix with some beeswax or paraffin) or soap making.  What is left over can be fried (or in technical terms "tried") for second run purposes such as patch grease for muzzleloaders, moccasin grease (if you DON'T have a dog!), axle grease, etc. 

[ty_in_ND]

Thanks for the tip, JW! When I make tallow again, I will definitely use more water. As for the current batch, for the sake of science, I will try your suggestion of boiling it to refine it. I'll take a before/after pic and some observations, but I must say I'm not unhappy with how it turned out now. But, like I said, for science!

[archeryrob]

I have not cooked with it, s I don;t like the taste of deer fat. Is it somehow different after rendering? I have been mixing it with beeswax and making bullet lube. I have two year old tallow and have had it in and out of the fridge and not growing mold or going rancid.

I just fried mine in an iron skillet and make dog bacon and drained the oil off. I would personally remove all the meat. Heat it up and that will all be on the bottom and pour the tallow off of it.