Rendering beef fat

Today I got another step closer to making my own soap.  I picked up about 5 lbs of beef fat from the butcher and I learned how to render it down. 

At first I was just shoving large chunks of fat into the pot and realized that wasn't working as well as I hoped, it seemed to trap huge quantities of fat within the layers of fat itself.  so I got on line and did a little research (ok so maybe a little late but not too late to remedy the situation.) 

So next I tried smaller chunks... still having the same issue, so I pulled out the beef fat that I had frozen from a few weeks back and I cut it into pieces and ran it through this little mini processor I have (I love that thing but if I'm going to make a lot more soap I will be investing in a larger, nicer mixer that has the food processor attachment... I'm eying the BOSH universal plus... but that'll be just a little ways down the road I think.  This worked SIGNIFICANTLY better ... not just a little, a LOT better.  so I froze the rest of the fat, went and watched a movie and came back after two hours and did the same for the rest of the fat.  I kept the pot on a medium low and just kept adding fat in increments as I was getting it chopped up as much as possible.  On one web site I was looking at they suggested having the butcher put it through the meat grinder... I intend to try that next time. Regardless, I have oil coming out my ears now. 

I strained the Whole mess through a strainer that was lined with 4 layers of cheese cloth (just folded in half twice).  I ended up straining it through two more times the second time because a few things fell around the strainer (ugh) and the third time because I saw a few small little flecks that were still lingering. 

The end result was a beautiful oil that I will be using to make soap with here shortly... hopefully next tuesday.  I already special ordered the lye (you can't buy it anywhere local because its so toxic...  if the chemical touches your skin it starts making soap out of YOU. So best to keep some vinegar handy in case you need to neutralize the lye.  I already have goggles and gloves I have fragrance and coloring.  All I'm missing is coconut oil, I can't seem to find a single recipe that doesn't use coconut oil.  There is also some kind of calculation that my book referred too but didn't go into specifics,  that your supposed to use to figure out what combination of oils makes the best soap. However,Its become a factor of much annoyance because I'm not finding any specifics on that topic so I will update this blog when I get it figured out.