Deer tallow .

[-JR-]

I shot a nice big whitetail doe this year . I have shot many deer in the past but I have never shot one with this much fat on it . Normally the fat is up to 4 inches thick on the back end only , but this one had thick fat every where . Ribs had over 1 inch on them .
I was able to almost fill a 20 L pail full of tallow fat . I remember eating deer ribs years ago and the tallow fat just sticks to the top of your mouth when eating it ,not like beef fat . So now it all gets cut off .
I just goggled it ,and there so many ways to use it .Including adding it to your ground meat . Its also full of omega 3 etc .
Anyone use their tallow ,or do you cut it all off also and throw it out .

[Stinky Buffalo]

You described the stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth aspect perfectly. We've been cutting it off and pitching it.

We often do initial trimming in the field (sometimes we'll toss it into bushes so the chickadees get to have something to peck on while they keep us company.

I'm curious to see what others do as well.

[catnthehat]

Many people I speak to that do not like venison complain about the stick to the roof of your mouth fat, and I have always cut mine as lean as I can for that very reason I don't do anything with it but toss it in the bait pail for my trapper friends.
Cat

[4x4bowhunter]

I would not add it to your grind. Deer fat has a really strong taste. Maybe some people like it, but I would bet most do not.

I got a whitetail doe a few weeks ago and it also had lots of fat. I saved it up and am going to try and make soap from it. Lots of recipes online. The rest we will render down and make suet cakes with bird seed and chunky peanut butter to feed the wild birds around the house all winter.

[Brobee]

We use it to make a very good soap...process described at the 10:50 mark here:

https://youtu.be/rsAAfcpppIg

Cheers,

Brobee

[Stinky Buffalo]

Originally Posted by 4x4bowhunter

I got a whitetail doe a few weeks ago and it also had lots of fat. I saved it up and am going to try and make soap from it. Lots of recipes online. The rest we will render down and make suet cakes with bird seed and chunky peanut butter to feed the wild birds around the house all winter.

Great ideas, there!

[sns2]

Originally Posted by Brobee

We use it to make a very good soap...process described at the 10:50 mark here:

https://youtu.be/rsAAfcpppIg

Cheers,

Brobee

Bloody hell… what’s wrong with Irish Spring?

[vanslays]

I’ve also made soap from it. It is actually super easy. I rendered the fat 2-3 times to get a nice clean tallow cake first. The hard fat of a deer makes good soap. Make sure to use distilled water when mixing your lye. Hard water will affect how good your lather is.

[-JR-]

Who has heard this saying : When big game has more fat than normal ,it means a colder winter is coming .

[Bushrat]

Originally Posted by 4x4bowhunter

I would not add it to your grind. Deer fat has a really strong taste. Maybe some people like it, but I would bet most do not.

It tastes like dirty socks smell, instant gag reflex for me. Yet there are some folks who like it or simply can't taste it, I don't know which. I've sat and watched people eat it and lick their chops, yet everyone else gagged it down to be polite then had to leave the table. The stick to the roof of your mouth is one thing but its really the disguisting taste of the fat and silver skin that turn people off deer venison.

[Bushrat]

Originally Posted by -JR-

Who has heard this saying : When big game has more fat than normal ,it means a colder winter is coming .

Heard that wives tale quite often. It means they had an easy previous winter and were well fed all this spring and summer.

Also notice lots of wasp nests way up high in the trees this year, according to the wives tales we should get at least 30 to 50 feet of snow soon.

[Bigfeet]

I trim the fat, but save if for putting in the bird (suet) feeder. Chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, blue jays all seem to like it.

[markusbrainus]

I make a cold process lye soap out of deer tallow. I cut it about 50% with other oils like coconut, castor, and canola oil to soften it and improve the sudsing. I add colours and scents and sometimes mold it in soap/chocolate molds to get a very nice product.

Soap and More in Calgary has a lot of supplies or order online https://soapandmore.ca/

This site is great at determining the water & lye ratios and estimating the soap properties for various oil combinations. http://www.soapcalc.net/calc/soapcalcwp.asp


You can also make candles but I'm not sure how nice they'd smell. You'd want to render the tallow very slowly to avoid cooking in a gamey smell.

I've read about making tallow bird feed suet blocks by pouring it over bird seed and molding it into bricks. You can buy or make a little wire mesh suet block bird feeder to hang it from the tree.

[markusbrainus]

Originally Posted by vanslays

I’ve also made soap from it. It is actually super easy. I rendered the fat 2-3 times to get a nice clean tallow cake first. The hard fat of a deer makes good soap. Make sure to use distilled water when mixing your lye. Hard water will affect how good your lather is.

I haven't tried re-rendering it to get a cleaner tallow. How do you do it?

What do you filter your tallow through to remove particulates (cooked meat particles)? Coffee filters are too fine; I usually use a single ply of paper towel.

I've had a few batches that I think I rendered too fast or didn't filter well enough and it's a little yellowed and has a gamey smell.

[DirtShooter]

I trim and discard it 100% of the time.

[eric2381]

I trim all of it off and the farm cats or the chickens get it. I think it ruins the meat if you leave it on. I actually buy beef fat from a local butcher to mix with my ground deer at 10%. Makes it much better. The good cuts of deer are definitely trimmed clean and cooked in whole pieces to rare/medium rare and no more. Sous vide is awesome on wild game.

[58thecat]

Cut and chuck.
Just simply gross to eat any amount.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[-JR-]

Originally Posted by eric2381

I trim all of it off and the farm cats or the chickens get it. I think it ruins the meat if you leave it on. I actually buy beef fat from a local butcher to mix with my ground deer at 10%. Makes it much better. The good cuts of deer are definitely trimmed clean and cooked in whole pieces to rare/medium rare and no more. Sous vide is awesome on wild game.

I add no fat or any other meat to my deer grind. Tried both ways . And I like straight deer meat on its own the best ,as long as its a doe and not a stinky buck .

[6.5 shooter]

Hard fat for making pemmican, rest for the birds, or soap.

[New2Elk]

Originally Posted by Bushrat

Heard that wives tale quite often. It means they had an easy previous winter and were well fed all this spring and summer.

Also notice lots of wasp nests way up high in the trees this year, according to the wives tales we should get at least 30 to 50 feet of snow soon.

I used to talk to people about this theory as well. It sure makes a heck of a lot of difference in fat content depending on the amount and quality of food the deer can find. If you compare a deer living only in the bush with a deer living in farm country that’s been getting into grain, I can guarantee you the farm deer is going to carry a lot more fat.

[Rhino81]

I just barfed in my mouth and spilled my whiskey!🥃

[W921]

Originally Posted by -JR-

I shot a nice big whitetail doe this year . I have shot many deer in the past but I have never shot one with this much fat on it . Normally the fat is up to 4 inches thick on the back end only , but this one had thick fat every where . Ribs had over 1 inch on them .
I was able to almost fill a 20 L pail full of tallow fat . I remember eating deer ribs years ago and the tallow fat just sticks to the top of your mouth when eating it ,not like beef fat . So now it all gets cut off .
I just goggled it ,and there so many ways to use it .Including adding it to your ground meat . Its also full of omega 3 etc .
Anyone use their tallow ,or do you cut it all off also and throw it out .

What was your deer eating to get so fat?

[Drewski Canuck]

Hold onto it till spring and use it for bear bait.

Smear it everywhere on the trees around the bait barrel and enjoy the show.

Drewski

[vanslays]

Originally Posted by markusbrainus

I haven't tried re-rendering it to get a cleaner tallow. How do you do it?

What do you filter your tallow through to remove particulates (cooked meat particles)? Coffee filters are too fine; I usually use a single ply of paper towel.

I've had a few batches that I think I rendered too fast or didn't filter well enough and it's a little yellowed and has a gamey smell.

I grind the frozen fat chunks before my first render which is done in a crockpot slowly. Oh and I mix the fat chunks with water in the crockpot. For the first render I strain through a fine metal mesh.

For the second and third render I break up the tallow cake and warm it slowly till melted in water and then strain through paper towel laid in my mesh strainer.

[vance]

Dear Deer,

I try my best to use all of my game animals. I cut up the entire skeletons and make stock, removing the meat bits, sinew, cartilage, etc to make food for my dogs. Blood shot meat, gnarly bits etc all get cooked into dog food.
I would love to use the deer fat, but I dislike the taste, hate the mouth feel, and find it goes rancid even in the freezer.
Last year, I carefully rendered all the fat from 3 deer in the slow cooker and made bricks of it to give to the birds at the cabin.....and they wouldn't eat it.
Its also the hardest fat to clean up. It takes 2-3 very hot water washes with Dawn to get the greasy feel off grinders, etc. Its "waxy".
I will save it for spring bear bait.

I get every bit of fat out of my venison stock, and then family and friends who taste it can't tell its from venison. If any fat remains, its easy to taste. In a bad way.

Otherwise, I love everything about you Deer, though I do love big sister Moose much more.

Vance

[vanslays]

So does elk fat have the same off flavour as deer fat, or can you leave some ek fat in your grind?

I usually am very diligent about removing all fat and much of the silver skin from my deer meat, and I find the finished product tastes much better (oh and also keep your grinder and grind meat very cold, I believe this makes a difference in flavour as well).

[slough shark]

It’s good for bait on the trapline or bear in the spring, dogs or cats like it as well, it’s no good for people eating it imho. I’ve toyed with the idea of rendering it down to see if that changes it and removes the taste that I don’t like but I’ve never put in the time doing that because I have other uses.

[RussAlexander21]

I made about a dozen bars of soap and 3 large candles from my buck last year. You would never know it wasn’t store bought soap/candles

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by 4x4bowhunter

I would not add it to your grind. Deer fat has a really strong taste. Maybe some people like it, but I would bet most do not.

I got a whitetail doe a few weeks ago and it also had lots of fat. I saved it up and am going to try and make soap from it. Lots of recipes online. The rest we will render down and make suet cakes with bird seed and chunky peanut butter to feed the wild birds around the house all winter.

Absolutely. Gound meat with tallow included is the ultimate sign of an absolute hack butcher IMO. I've had people offer to give me such meat and I wont even take it for free.

Easyest way I've heard of using it is to melt it into an old coffe mug, add a wick, and use it for a candle. Have no clue what it would smell like once the tallow goes rancid.

[graybeard]

Originally Posted by Stinky Buffalo

You described the stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth aspect perfectly. We've been cutting it off and pitching it.

We often do initial trimming in the field (sometimes we'll toss it into bushes so the chickadees get to have something to peck on while they keep us company.

I'm curious to see what others do as well.

^^^ I'm right there ^^^ or attach it to a barbed wire fence...the chicks need fuel.