So, tallow rendering. Can be messy and time consuming. Can also be ridiculously simple!
How to Render tallow very quickly
You will need
1) large non-stick saucepan (or 2)
2) fine sieve
3) freezer
4) food processor
5) spoon, knife
6) suet
Step 1: Find some grass fed suet. Don't be scared by the size of the block you may get. It could be nearly a foot long
Step 2: Remove any veins and any big bits of membrane. Leave the little bits
Step 3: Cut into big chunks, 3" wide or so. No need to go smaller
Step 4: Freeze the chunks
Step 5: When frozen, the suet is brittle. Work 1 chunk at a time. Put the saucepan on low heat. Break the chunk up into smaller pieces, then use the food process to cut up fine, till it looks like meal. Add to saucepan. Process another chunk. Add to saucepan.
Step 6: stir occasionally. The small size of the fat particles means that they won't spit and spray fat everywhere but they do like to stick together
Step 7: If you want very white tallow, transfer the fat as it comes out to the 2nd saucepan and continue to heat to drive off the water. So you will have 1 pan with brown pre-cracklings and one with just fat.
Step 8: Once the fat stops bubbling the temperature will rise. Turn off heat immediately and strain through the sieve into jars
Step 9: The membranes in the suet will have turned into mushy 'cracklings' These are very nice eaten immediately with salt and black pepper as a cooks perk
The whole thing takes about 30 minutes. And the 'freeze and blitz' technique is much less messy and time consuming than separating all the membranes and then cutting the suet up small! The smaller particle size means that a) they don't spit and b) they render in less than half the time
