How to Render Goat Fat for Tallow

I finished the rendering and purifying process of my goat fat today. At the request of a few members (@Jubillee @Boadicea), I figured I'd put together a tutorial. I used the method described by Bumblebee Apothecary at This link. It's for beef tallow, but it works just as well for goat. She also has a video on the process on YouTube.

This is considered the "wet method" of rendering which uses salt water to pull out the impurities in the fat. I started by grinding my chunks of fat which I had picked clean for the most part, having ridden it of most of the meat bits and any hair from our newbie skinning techniques. 😅 I ground up the fat on a medium grind. If you don't have a meat grinder you can chop up the fat real fine, or use a food processor. Be sure when using a grinder or a food processor that your equipment, as well as the fat, is very cold so it doesn't gunk up your machine.

After being ground it goes into the crock pot along with 6-8 cups of water. How much water to add depends on your climate and the amount of fat you are rendering. If it's dry in your house, go for the higher end of the amount so it doesn't evaporate too quickly. If more humid, you can get away with less. Likewise, if you are rendering less fat, less water would be needed. I did 8 cups. You will also add 3 tablespoons of table salt (less if you are rendering less). This isn't an exact science, you can just eyeball it. I poured the water in and then the salt on top of the fat and once it started melting, then stirred it in.

Look at all those cute little fat noodles. 🥰


Turn the crockpot on low and let all the fat melt. Stir a few times during the process to help it render evenly. You're looking for the all the fat to be melted and the little gristly bits to look cooked and sink to the bottom. My full crock pot took about two hours to achieve this, but if you didn't grind yours it may take longer.



Next, strain out the gristle through two layers of fine cotton cheese cloth lining a metal strainer and into a container to let the fat separate out from the water. You'll want to pick a container that's mailable enough that you'll be able to pop the fat out of it once it's solidified. Put your separated fat in the fridge to fully harden.


Once fully hardened, jimmy the fat out of the top of your container and flip the fat over and inspect to see if there are any impurities on the underside of the fat block. You may see a discolored layer that will need to be scraped off with a knife until you see the pure white fat bellow. In the bottom of the container, you will see left over all the yucky grossness the salt pulled out of the fat.

At this point you will want to roughly chop up the fat and it's back in the crock pot to repeat the process to purify it. Same amount of water and salt as before. Bring the fat to a simmer and let it stay at a simmer for an hour. I must admit that I forgot about it and mine simmered for a lot longer, but it was alright anyway. 😅

Repeat the straining and separating process as before. When you take your hardened block out of the container this time you should see cleaner water below and less or no impurities on the underside of the block. If your water is still really dirty you can repeat the purifying process as many times as you want to achieve a cleaner fat. That picture of mine solidified above is actually after purifying. If satisfied with the cleanliness of it, take your block of fat and try and dry off as much of the water as possible with a paper towel. Leftover water will aid in spoiling the fat so the goal is to get rid of as much of it as possible.

I like to remelt my fat into containers for storage, but you can just leave it in chunks. When remelting, you may notice some salt water at the bottom of the pot when pouring off the fat, discard that from the bottom, even if it means sacrificing a little fat.

And you're done! Your fat should be relatively shelf stable if kept in a cool dark environment. I personally like to freeze mine just because I don't have to worry about it spoiling since I don't know how quickly I'll use it up. I write the date and the exact weight on the lid so that I know exactly how much I have to make soap out of. It's such beautifully pure white stuff!