"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , sPoNiX
writes

To make your own tallow, get some suet fat from the butcher. This is
the heavy thick white fat from inside the back bone of a bovine
carcass. It should be free. You then cut it up a bit to break down the
membranes, and melt it slowly in a large saucepan. A clear fat will
emerge, which can be strained to remove the fibres. You can refine the
fat, by adding a little water, and rendering it. Simply heat for a
while, then allow to cool. The mixture will separate into three
layers. The best tallow on the top, the stock in the middle, and the
solids at the bottom. Try it! - but don't blame me for the
smell......."

Miners used to get "free" tallow candles for when they worked down the
mine. They were mixed with copper chloride (?) to poison them so that
the miners didn't eat them

I just knew you wanted to know that

I made some for a Lead mine in Northumberland - or Durham - can't remember
which. They tell visitors that miners used them and lives had been saved
because they HAD eaten them when trapped underground by a fall ...

It was before my time so I have no experience, but that's what they said.

Incidentally, Prices Candles do (or did until a few years ago) make tallow
candles for Arctic and Antarctic expeditions and HM Forces in cold climes.
They were exempt from VAT because they were classified as food ...

Mary

--
geoff