I generally call the meat department at my local supermarket for the raw materials. At first, they thought I was nuts when I asked them to make me five pounds of ground beef fat, but now they look forward to getting a few bars of the final product in return for their efforts. I have never been charged for this. If your supermarket charges you more than $0.10 per pound, check around for a more friendly meat crew.
The ingredients:
5 lb of beef FAT
water (see below)
Place the fat in a large pot and melt slowly, avoiding burning the unmelted fat. Continue to heat for 30-60 minutes, cool slightly for safety, and carefully decant over a sieve to remove cooked meat particles. Feed the meat residue to the dogs.
Add 1/2 volume of clean water to cooled melted fat (make sure it's cool enough to accept the water without sizzling, spraying hot fat all over you and the kitchen.) Return to stove and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to continue a low boil for 4 hours.
Cool slightly and decant fat/water into a large plastic or ceramic bowl. Set in a cool place, or in the refrigerator to cool for a day. The next day, a two to three layer structure will have formed, with protein laden water or jelly (yum!) on the bottom, a fat/water grainy suspension layer in the middle, and a disk of pure tallow on the top.
Unmold the structure in the sink, over a clean plate. Scrape off the jelly and granular layer and feed it to the dogs, (or pigs if you got 'em.) Clean off the disk of tallow and store wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge until ready to use. It should store for many weeks.
Tallow candles are what ruined Michaelangelo's frescos, so congratulate yourself on learning a technique so steeped in history!
FOR THOSE OF YOUR READERS WHO DO NOT WISH TO PARTAKE IN THE "JOY" OF RENDERING (OR HAVE TRIED IT AND ARE READY FOR PRE-RENDERED) THEY CAN PURCHASE REFINED BEEF FAT. I WORK FOR A COMPANY WHICH PROCESSES MILLIONS OF POUNDS OF SHORTENINGS AND OILS PER WEEK. ONE OF WHICH IS BEEF TALLOW, ALSO LARD. FURTHERMORE TO MAKE A HARDER SOAP THEY MIGHT LIKE TO ADD SOMETHING KNOWN AS HYDROGENATED TALLOW. THIS WILL HELP YOU TO ADJUST THE MELTING POINT TO FIRM IT UP. ANYONE LOOKING TO PURCHASE THESE AND ANY OTHER OIL SHOULD CONTACT ME BY E-MAIL AND I WILL FORWARD TO MY COMPANY.
GOOD LUCK IN YOUR CRAFT,
JOE LOVESHE
YOUR FRIEND IN FAT
loveshe@flash.net