Deer tallow has gained a bad reputation among many hunters, but we're here to set the record straight. Learn how to render deer fat to make beautiful, odorless, shelf-stable tallow for use in cooking, skincare, and more.
I got 3 does between Christmas and New Years that had the largest fat caps I’ve ever seen on a deer. We were going to use it to make suet blocks, but after watching you, soap it is! Thank you for walking us through the process.
I can’t believe I just found your channel ! Where have you been all this time? 😂 I’m so glad I did as you are by far the best. So grateful with The knowledge you have and the way you pass this on to your followers ❤
Thank you so much for these videos! In Tennessee we have an amazing amount of foraging, hunting, and soil environments. It makes me inspired to do something similar. The way you two support eachother through these challenges really show me what I might want for my future spouse
I grew up in a Mennonite community. When I was young we would have 20-30 people all going out for opening day. I remember in deer season our garage was turned into a processing station. We had a guy that would take and tan the hides (back when you could get paid for them) we lived off the meat. At that time Walmart wasn’t even a thing. My grandmother used to take the entire fat pile and her and all the other wives and kids would make candles and play bridge for weeks. We still used candles even when most of our community had electricity. Something about reading a book by candlelight before bed I’ve never been able to give up. We just made thousands of candlesticks. Deer tallow is perfect for candles as she used lard from the hogs to cook with. Remembering these things from when I was 5-8yo it’s like a completely different world now.
Hi thanks for this video! I went hunting with a friend and he got me a doe & showed me how to butcher it. I saved as much fat as I could (she had a lot!). Unfortunately I didn’t save any of the visceral fat this time but for sure next time I will. It was sooooo cold! It’s been in a cooler out on my porch in single digit temps. My friend recommended using a crock pot so I’ve watched a few videos. I chopped the fat and it’s in the 8-quart crock pot now. Wasn’t sure about the water- some folks say absolutely no water and others recommend water. So I will try your method and add water and salt and see how it goes!
Great video, really glad I found your RU-vid videos. I have been saving my deer tallow for about four years now and it really makes a great soap. I also save chunks of it in the freezer and use it on my cast iron after cooking and cleaning before putting away. I use the same method to render. I’ve always just kept the rendered tallow in the freezer. Now I know that I can keep it on the shelf in mason jars. Good to know thank you
You recently had a short on making pie crust with deer tallow. In it you said how your pies had a "rustic" look to them. Pie baking secret: you can get molds for the edge of the pie crust. You press the mold into the pie and it will leave a pretty design.
You skipped over my favorite use for deer (really any cervid) tallow, which is to make bullet lube, using a 50/50 mix with bees wax. It is particularly useful for black powder shooters in that it largely prevents hard fouling from developing.
Thank you for this. I’ve just rendered down some deer tallow and apart from using a blender, I did the same as you. I was curious to see how you did it. I use it for soap.
Great video! I just collected a big bag of tallow from a deer and I'm planning on making shoe/leather conditioner out of it. Was thinking of mixing perhaps some bees wax and tar in it.
Deer tallow is technically edible, but it's generally considered to taste pretty foul. It has a waxy texture and odd taste compared to other fats, so while it does have some niche culinary uses, cow or pig fat is considered more generally useful for cooking
Very informative content. I’ve lately found myself interested in rendering tallow especially for cosmetics and I wanted to know if the water quality matters when using the wet method. I mean, do some chemicals contained in the water make their way through the final product or it is completely safe to use tap water even in regions known to have “hard water”? I sincerely hope you or anyone knowledgeable could address my concern, thank you and keep up the good work.
I did the overnight method in my slow cooker and when i got up this morning it had begun to burn (a heap of brown cripsy bits on the top) is this still usuable if i do a few more purifying runs or not with this batch? I plan on using most of it for skin creams and soaps..
Ironically there is a local store nearby me that sells an 8oz jar for like 20-25 bucks. I was able to get some tallow for less than that can do so many things with it.
Awesome video! I rendered down my tallow, but it still had the brown look on the bottom. When I went to re-render it, I added more salt into the water and heated it up. The Tello looks great, and is pure white, but it is pretty salty. Is this normal or is it supposed to be just the fat flavor rather than Salty like this?
QQQ: did you cover the crock pot or leave it uncovered? And my fat has a fair amount of little meaty bits in it.. hope that’s ok? I have more fat outside in another bucket and that stuff is pretty clean but I started with the messier stuff.
We leave it uncovered which lets any scent cook off. As for the meaty bits, that’s fine to leave in if you have to, but that’s where most of the meaty smell comes from so you’ll probably have to render that batch again after straining to get it scentless. It can also help to cook it with some lavender to cover the meat smell
Ok it’s in the crock pot for round 2 with water and salt. I didn’t let it harden as all the dark bits sunk right to the bottom of the bowl. I will make tallow balls for the birds with that stuff. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!
Hello, my question is about your hand grain mill. I'm in the process of buying one and I would like to know where you got yours. Thanks for your educational channel.
Deer tallow is just the fat of the animal. You can get fat off of most mammals, although how worth it depends on the species. The amount of fat an animal has and the quality of said fat is different depending on species too. When you go to the store, you can buy lard (rendered pig fat) or sometimes tallow (cow fat) for cooking.
