When jerky went to the butcher, we had the presence of mind to ask for the fat. Normally they throw the fat away, but we had read about rendering lard and figured it wouldn't be that hard. I've read that lard from grass-fed beef isn't nearly as bad for you as "regular" lard.
When we arrived to pick up our meat, we got six boxes of meat and two full boxes of fat. Some people render lard on the stove top, but you have to be careful not to burn it. My solution was to use the oven. I filled my two big pots as full as I could get them and set the oven to 325ºF. About eight hours later, we found much reduced kettles with lots of amber liquid.
We poured the liquid through a cheese cloth, using our big milk funnel, into gallon jars. It didn't take long for the liquid to cool to solid.
It took three batches and three days to render all that fat. In the end we got seven gallons of lard which we'll store in the frig or cellar so it won't go rancid.
I've heard that lard is best for pie crusts, so we promptly tried it out. Sure enough, it was very good pie crust and much easier to work with than butter. We've already had apple pie and chicken pie. With seven gallons of lard, we can have pie most every day!
It was some effort rendering all that lard, but not that bad. It feels really good to make better use of jerky's sacrifice on our behalf. Now his meat *and* his fat is nourishing our family.
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