Camille,
What type of meat grinder do you use?


> Rendering fat is easy. I just rendered about a BUNCH of fat in my 20
> gallon cast iron cauldron over a wood fire last weekend. I ended up
> with more than 7 gallons of rendered lard/tallow. I use this for
> making soap. I get it from the local meat processing plant, so I am
> never sure exactly what animnal it comes from. There is, without a
> doubt, a huge difference between kidney fat (leaf lard, suet) than
> regular body fat. It is much harder to cut up, has more membrane in
> it, and is more brittle when frozen.
>
> The easiest way to render small amounts of fat, from my experience, is
> in the oven. I just chop it up into smallish pieces, throw it in a big
> turkey roaster (no lid) with a little water to get it started, and
> bake it all day. Since I usually make soap with it, I render it at 350
> deg. I render at lower temps when I am planning to eat it.
>
> I have recently invested in an Excalibur Dehyrator, with 9 trays. It
> has over 15 square feet of drying space.  It's wonderful! I had one of
> the round ones from Wal-mart and let me tell you, I can fill my big
> one up with 14 lbs of ground meat for jerky in less time than I could
> put 3 lbs in the little one.  It is so much easier to fill big square
> trays it's not funny.  It has already paid for itself just in the time
> I have saved. I got it on ebay, but it still wasn't cheap.
>
> If you make jerky from ground meat, and if you have a meat grinder,
> take a look at the Jerky Genie: http://id.mind.net/~jergenie/   It
> uses the meat grinder to extrude strips for jerky. Works like a champ.
> My husband and I can process 14 lbs of meat into jerky in about 30
> minutes.
>
> Camille
> --
> "What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves."
>
> --- 'Prometheus Rising' by Robert Anton Wilson