Render planner: how much tallow from your suet

Suet first

Kidney suet renders cleaner, firmer and milder than trim, and it gives more back: plan on 70% of the raw weight as finished tallow, inside a 65 to 80% range, against 55 to 65% for clean trim and under half for meaty trim. Suet is about 94% fat, so no method returns more than that. Ask the butcher for the suet by name; the argument is in suet, not trim.

Wet or dry

A wet render holds the fat under salted water at 85 to 95 C for two to three hours; the beef notes go into the water and the heat never climbs. A dry finish afterward drives the last water off. A dry render alone runs longer and hotter and carries more beef in its scent. The method changes the time and the smell, not the yield band. How tallow is rendered for skin covers both, and what we ask of our own render.

Questions we hear

How much tallow does a pound of suet make?

About 11 ounces, inside a 10 to 13 ounce range. Five pounds of suet is about three and a half pounds of tallow, or roughly 33 two-ounce jars of balm at four parts tallow to one part carrier.

How long does it take to render tallow?

Two to three hours wet, plus 20 to 40 minutes for the dry finish; three to four hours for a low dry render. Cutting or grinding the fat small is what shortens it.

Why does my tallow smell like beef?

Trim fat, a hot or dry render, or scorching at the melt. Suet, rendered low and wet, comes out nearly scentless. The smell does not wash out of a finished balm.

How do I store rendered tallow?

Stir in a gram of vitamin E per kilo while it is warm, pour into clean jars, and keep it cool and dark; the freezer holds it for a year or more. The shelf-life estimator takes it from there.