Using the fat from your critter

[Dave Bulla]

Recently Huntit posted about uses for the fat from a bear.  I posted about making some boot grease and that I had some tips for doing that.  Well, I got several PM's from people who were interested so I figured I'd copy my reply to them here so others could get to it also.

Here it is.

I wasn't really talking about tips for rendering the fat, rather tips for making it into boot dressing after it's rendered but I'll get to that.

I've never rendered bear fat but I have done several deer.  I usually get between a half gallon to a gallon of lard from a single deer.  I just trim off all the back fat, kidney fat (the best kind) and throw it all in my turkey fryer pot and heat it until it's all melted  being careful not to overheat it or the finished lard will smell burnt.  Then I spoon out all the solid chunks with a big strainer spoon like what comes with the little deep fryers at wally world.  I then pour it slowly through a wire mesh strainer basket into a clean bowl and let it cool.

Generally I still get a tiny bit of sediment in the bottom but that is easily removed by popping the lard out of the bowl after it has set up and trimming any discolored area off the bottom of the chunk with a knife.  It helps to refridgerate the bowl of fat first so it's well set up.

I thought of making a cone shaped container to pour the strained hot liquid fat into so that when I pop it out in a chunk I could just cut off the tip and get rid of any sediment with minimal loss of good fat.  Setting a regular pot on an angle will also let most of the solids gather on one edge of the bottom

If you are interested in making boot grease what I do is this:

I melt the clean fat (1/2 to 1 gallon) back down in a large pot and add two wax toilet bowl rings, a good size chunk (maybe 2X4X6 inches or better) of beeswax and melt it all together.  Keeping the temp medium low, I then add some branches from cedar and christmas trees to give it a nice pine scent.  Steep it like tea for a little bit then remove the branches and restrain.

Add about 1 to 2 cups of neets foot oil (if using deer fat) and stir it up well.

Then pour into small containers like little 3 or 4 ounce tupperwares.  I buy 4 packs at walmart that are about three inches across and 2 inches tall.  Sometimes they are round, sometimes oval.  Just use something with a lid.  You could use a mufin tin and paper liners or paper cups but without a lid storage is inconvenient at best and actual use even less so.

Now here's the catch.  Deer fat is HARD when it's set up.  Almost like soft wax.  The key to good boot grease is getting the proper consistency.  Adding beeswax increases the water resistance as do the was toilet rings.  I'm told the toilet rings also have lanolin which is a standard ingredient in most boot polish.  The beeswax is even harder than the deer fat but the toilet rings are softer so together they are a wash.  The KEY is the neets foot oil.  More oil gives softer boot grease, less is harder.

Problem is, I never measure my stuff when I make it.  Kinda like I cook.  Anyway, the amounts I gave above should be in the ballpark.  If it comes out harder than you want, you can just melt it back down and add some more oil.  I usually make mine so that the hardness is about the same or maybe a tad harder than a can of shoe polish.  It will feel hard to the touch but if you gouge into it, it comes our a lot softer after it's been disrupted.  If you mash it up with a fork it actually gets nice and creamy but makes a mess in the process.  I just use my fingertips and smoosh out a gob then spread it into the leather real well.  Sometimes I'll heat the leather gently with a hair dryer if I want to get some serious penetration.

I sure would be curious to try rendering out some bear fat.  I'm betting it is not nearly as hard as the deer fat is so maybe the neets foot oil could be totally omitted?  Might even have to add extra beeswax.

[homerdave]

cool dave, thanks!
i see that the mistakes i made with the bear i just did (other then forgetting to take the kidney fat    ) were allowing it to get too hot, and not cutting it up small enough.
still got several pints, but it was a pretty small bear.

[outbackbob48]

Skunk fat is  oily an won,t freeze an allready has its own coverup scent. I,ve got lots of coon fat if anybody needs some, Sure are fat this time of yr. Got a coyote yesterday an couldn,t believe how fat he was. Easy living so far this winter, except for trappers and hunters after them. Later Bob

[nugget]

Bear gut makes awesome string material. Very easy to do and very strong.

[MikeC]

Dave that sure seems like a lot of trouble for simple boot grease.  Actually nothing beats good old Montana Pitch Blend.

I don't do this but I know some guys that do, they render the bear fat but don't actually use the fat itself.  They get it good and strained and place it in mason jars then set it by a window and if your lucky you'll get pure bear oil on the top that is skimmed off and bottled, great for lubricating guns and patches for your PRB loads, can also be used for oil lamps if you get enough.  Very traditional.

[Dave Bulla]

Mike, it is a bit of work but it's fun too.  Usually I set up my gas stove in the yard under the tree I have the deer hanging in when I skin it and just start triming fat and tossing chunks into the pot on simmer.  By the time I have the deer cut up the fat is pretty well rendered out and ready to strain.

Funny you should mention the Pitch Blend, I really like that stuff and was sort of attempting to copy it scent wise the first time I made my boot grease.  I think my stuff works at as well as th pitch blend but I wasn't able to get as strong of a pine scent.  The scent I got seemed much more natural for my part of the country where pine trees are few and far between.  Mostly we just have some cedars, junipers and a few stray Christmas trees planted in peoples yards.  One deer will make about 10 or 12 little tubs of boot grease and I use 1 to 3 per year.  I usually give the rest away at mojam or to friends and family locally.

Also, I can't make any claim that the stuff I make is some kind of great waterproofer for leather because it's not any better than anything else on the market.  Until gore tex lined boots came out, there was NO SUCH THING as a waterproof leather boot.... My stuff works about as good or better than Mink Oil, Snow Seal, Pitch Blend etc.  The main benefit is that you can get your boots sopping wet (and at some point it will likely soak through) but when you let them dry, if they have been properly treated, they won't dry as hard and stiff as an untreated boot.  Then, if you retreat them after they're dry, they will get nice and soft again.

Just a nice functional conditioner for leather.

I did notice that the deer fat will make oil too.  When I leave it in a bowl and let it set out it appears to "sweat" but the drops that come out are oil.  The amount seems to vary and I've never tried using it for anything.

[MikeC]

Dave sounds like good stuff and you enjoy making it.

Never heard of anyone using deer oil presently or in past history.  I'll have to ask on the MZ sites I frequent, those guys would know for sure.  Bear oil has been used for centuries, stuff has a beautiful crystal clear golden color to it if you done your work correctly and it actually sells between 7 and 8 dollars an ounce if you can find it commerically or someone willing to part with their private stock, keeps nearly forever in a glass bottle with a cork top.  Indians and trappers used it for medicinal purposes also.

[Dave Bulla]

I got another pm with some more questions about how long the stuff keeps and are there other uses for the rendered fat

I generally keep the plain rendered fat in the freezer for storage and then get it out and make a batch when I'm bored.  I currently have a bowl of it in the freezer that is from last years deer so I didn't even bother rendering the fat from the deer this year.  It just doesn't really go bad in the freezer.

I suppose in a pinch you could use deer fat like lard but I wouldn't advize it for most applications.  Reason beeing that at human body temps the deer fat is still a solid.  It kinda sets up in your mouth like a gob of chapstic.  

The way I know that is one time I killed a real nice young yearling and took great care when skinning to keep all the layers of thin meat and fat on the ribs then I put the rib slabs in my smoker and smoked them.  They came out awsome!  The wife and I were gobbling them up and were both about 2 ribs into the pile when we reached for something to drink at about the same time.  Don't remember what we were drinking but I think it was wine.  Anyway about two swallows and we both kinda stopped with a kinda gagging expression and looked at each othere like "EEEEEEWWWW what happened?"  I'd have sworn that I'd been chewing on a tube of chapstic.  The ribs tasted great but one drink of something cool and our mouths were coated with congealed fat....  Wouldn't go away either.  We ate a little bit more because they tasted so good but the appetite didn't stand up to the "feel".

Later I went to a seminar about eating and cooking wild game and the speaker talked about wild pig being so healthy because pig fat is melted at human body temps and is easily passed where as beef is not.  Deer has as high or higher melting point as beef.  Generally since deer has so little fat, and what it has is easy to trim off, it's not an issue but on something like the ribs where the fat layers are trapped inside it really shows.

The finished product keeps almost indefinately.  I have some tubs that are about two years old and while the "fresh" scent has faded a bit it hasn't gone rancid or anything.  The old stuff takes on an odor similar to but weaker than Mink Oil.  I've also remelted old stuff right in the plastic tub by microwaving it and added a sprig or two of cedar while it was hot.  If it started to cool I'd nuke it again until the smell was refreshed, pull the cedar out and let it set up again.

[Ralph Renfro]

And it definitely works well! Thanks Dave and tell my buddy Emmit Hi for me.  Ralph

[Killdeer]

Mockingbird here, hijacking my wife's identity, since she's already logged on and I don't wanna bump her.

I use deer fat to season cast iron cookware. The harder the fat, the better. (Pig fat [bacon grease] is no good, because as pointed out earlier, it's liquid at low temperatures. Hard beef fat is kinda ok, but deer tallow is better.) I just cut it right off the deer and stick it in the freezer 'as is'. When I need some, I pick out a piece I like, heat up the pan, and melt down enough to cover the pan, sides and all. Then keep heating the pan over medium to medium-high heat. Let it smoke (use an exhaust fan, or do it outside on a portable stove. Better yet, over a campfire!      :D  ). Use a paper towel or cotton cloth to keep the stuff spread evenly as you continue to heat it. When it turns nice and dark, cut the heat and let the pan cool. If the pan needs more seasoning after this, just repeat the procedure. Several thin layers is better than one thick one. The idea is to heat each layer longer and hotter than you would during most cooking, to create a hard glaze, so that when you DO cook, you never reach the temperature required to melt the seasoning layer(s).

You won't get the "chapstick effect", because you've taken the fat beyond that into a hard glaze coating that stays intact at normal cooking temperatures.

Tips: use wood or plastic/teflon coated utensils to cook. You want something that's fairly soft so you don't scrape off your seasoning layers. If you must use metal, be careful; use it gently.

Never use soap or detergent to clean cast iron. They will strip the seasoning off your cookware. Hot water and a nylon scrubber is all you need. Make SURE the scrubber isn't impregnated with some kind of abrasive, the way Scotch Brite is. A scrubber for teflon is probably ok. If you don't have a soft scrubber, use a cotton cloth.

Don't use too much 'elbow grease' with your scrubber. Washing any surface is done for three reasons: to remove particulate matter, chemical contaminants, and/or biological contaminants (germs). In cleaning cast iron, you mostly want to remove particulate matter (any stuck-on stuff). A light scrubbing should do if your pan is already well seasoned. After cleaning, wipe dry immediately, and coat with a light, thin film of your favorite cooking oil.

You're trying to keep your pan smooth and slick, mostly. Chemical contamination is not a real issue, because nothing toxic is going into the pan. Any germs on the pan itself are killed in the heat of cooking. The only way to introduce fresh microbes is with contaminated food.

Never boil anything in your cast iron pan. This will also strip the seasoning, as will cooking with wine (the alcohol does it). If you do boil or cook with wine, be prepared to re-season your pan.

If your pan is not smooth, slick, and dark, you may need to purposely strip it down to the metal and start over. Your call.

Mockingbird

[Pat B]

A friend was rendering some bear fat a few years ago on his back deck. The grease got too hot and caught fire and the pot was dumped in the confusion. Fortunately the fire was extinguished without problems. Where the grease poured on the deck water still beads up during a rain. That was 5 years ago.
   I have used hand rubbed bear grease to seal Cherokee style bows with good results.    Pat

[Dave Bulla]

Hey Mockingbird, I'm suprised I've never thought of using it for my cast iron pans....  My wife and I use cast iron almost exclusively except for a single teflon pan we use for spagetti sauce.  I'm sure you know that tomato of any kind is usually hard on the seasoning of a cast iron pan too.  Thanks for the tip!