SAVED FATS AND HOW TO USE THEM

[kappydell]

Out of an old WWI cookbook comes ways to flavor rendered fats:

(1) render one pound fat in a double boiler with 1 slice onion (1/2 inch thick and 2 inches diameter), 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper.

Simmer a few min, then strain out solids.

(2) Render one pound fat with 2 tsp thyme (fresh & chopped), 1 slice onion, 1 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper

(3) Render one pound fat with 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp dried marjoram, 1/2 tsp rubbged sage, 1/8 tsp pepper

 

Uses for fats:

1. Fry eggs, spuds for breakfast

2. Saute onions, carrots, celery, etc for casseroles; pan fry potatoes, cabbage or any savory food for side dish

3. Use to stir fry foods; pan-fry fish, fry rice for pilaf, dredge meat in flour and saute to brown before braising

4. Melt and toss with bread crumbs for casseroles, or cubes for croutons; melted fat blended with flour for gravies or sauces

5. Melt and use in pancake recipes, or anywhere melted butter or oleo is called for

6. To use in cakes, increase salt in recipe slightly. Mix dry ingredients, cream the fat with 3/4ths of the sugar. Add 1/4th of the flour to creamed mixture and beat; combine milk and liquid ingredients. Alternate liquid mixture with dry mixture beating into creamed mixture. Add egg yolks if using eggs, Beat in well. Beat egg whites with the last 1/4th of the sugar until stiff, fold in (to make up for less height when using chicken fat). Bake as recipe directs.

7. For pie crusts and biscuits, chill thoroughly then cut into dough. (mmmmm! Bacon fat flavored biscuits with breakfast!)

8. To make soap

9. To make cakes for birds

10. Outdoor pets love fat, it helps them stay warm & healthy

11. Herbal ointment base (pre petroleum days): 2 oz lard, bear grease or boar fat plus 2 oz mutton suet melted together in a pot over low heat. Add finely chopped herbs of choice. Strain through coarse cloth, pressing & squeezing to get all the juice. Stir in olive oil, mix very well. Let cool gradually, stirring to keep consistency even. Put in jarts and store in cool place. Keeps about 6 months. This emollient base soothes dry and irritated skin and acts as a carrier for the herbs you choose.

12. waterproof you hunting boots by combining equal parts beeswax, tallow and neats foot oil. Melt together, apply warm to leather boots.

13. Make rush lights using fat and cattails, soft rushes, or any other pithy stemmed plant.

14. Make tallow candles - dipped like beeswax candles, or use candle molds. These get soft if kept in too warm a place, but they do burn, and are cheap.

[Prickle]

I've made soap from my kitchen grease. Mostly it was cooking oil and grease from ground beef. I save my bacon and chicken fat for other stuff and I'm told poultry and fish oils make spongy soap so I kept that fat out too.

 

I've also made soap exclusively from the fat from lamb chops.

 

To clean it I would boil the fat in water with some baking soda then let it cool in the fridge. The unwanted spices and burned onion bits sink in the water and the fat rises to the top and comes out nice and white and clean smelling. Although I could never completely get the rosemary smell out of the lamb fat. I just considered it pre-scented

[Homemaker]

Did they use animal fat to water-proof canvas for their wagons?

[kappydell]

my great-great-grandma told me fats were too valuable to waterproof canvas - it would take too much. In her family they ate what kept well and made soap from the rest. She said they painted the wagon canvas with a linseed oil based paint after it was on the wagon and waterproofed it that way. Then when they got to their destination, and roughed out the cabin, the canvas was put on the roof and re-painted. She said the painted canvas lasted many years with care as asphalt shingles were not around, and others cost way much due to transportation costsl The only other cloth waterproofing I have heard about uses melted paraffin and kerosene and is pretty flammable. (yes, I know paint is flammable too - just not as bad as the paraffin kerosene mix.)

[KallieKat]

Years ago I worked for a woman who was raised during the Depression. She never bought furniture polish, instead she would have me dip a rag into chicken fat and use that to polish and preserve her wood furniture. When the rag went rancid, I was allowed a new rag, but had to wash the old one for reuse.

[kappydell]

Homemaker, there is no reason that using fat would not work - isnt that what oil cloth is? Kallie, that furniture polish thing is something I never thought of or heard of. Cool. I have recalled using fat for axle grease; bear or skunk fat for rheumatism. I guess that brings the count to 18 ways...