1. Tallow comes with regulated quality: Tallow production is monitored federally in the United States. This regulation of quality and composition is not available to many oils or other fats. Also, tallow has a titer of less than 40 degree Celsius. This makes tallow solid or semi solid at room temperature, thereby making it suitable for all types of uses.

2. Tallow is an energy source: Used most widely in North America and Europe, beef tallow is basically used to enhance food texture, flavor or a high-energy or high-vitamin source. It would greatly assist pets as it aids in the production of energy.

3. Tallow is palatable by pets: Unlike other fats, lard or mutton fat, beef tallow is easily palatable by cats and dogs. Mutton or lamb tallow is not palatable due to their peculiar aroma, but beef tallow which has a mild aroma is easily palatable by pets. Also, it has a digestibility of 97% or better in spite of being a highly saturated fat.

4. Tallow’s nutritional value: Many think that tallow has high risk of cholesterol or coronary heart disease on account of its heavy fat content. The saturated and trans fats in tallow, and the lipoprotein hypothesis project a false idea of beef tallow as food that is hazardous to health. Wrong. Coronary heart disease is not a concern for pets and is definitely not a health hazard in your cat or dog.

5. Tallow and polyunsaturated fatty acids: Some studies prove that polyunsaturated fats in essential fatty acids like linoleic acid (LA), omega-3 fatty acids like linoleic (ALA), eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids are useful in treating inflammatory diseases and in neurological development of dogs and cats. Beef tallow does not contain much of these acids, but its nutritional value is sufficient for safe use as a pet food ingredient. Tallow contains 3% of LA and 0.6% of ALA.

6. Tallow’s shelf life is longer: Tallow has a longer shelf life compared to other animal fats. It is stable at room temperature and requires less antioxidant preservatives to achieve shelf life. The linoleic acid present in tallow, it is found out, has the potential to fight cancer.

7. Tallow is pretty cheap: Tallow is used in pet food industry primarily due its cheap availability. It is not as costlier as other fats or oils and is also a better competitor in terms of digestibility and palatability in pets. So, no wonder, it is used widely in the pet food industry.

Light was almost unheard of, but for the oiled lamps and crude fireplaces. Only much later, candles came into being. If one looks into the annals of the 17th century, candlesticks or chandeliers were uncommon among people. Even the wealthiest had only a few candlesticks to brag about. A study on a Dutch household inventoried between 1698 to 1840 lists no chandeliers or lighting equipments of better sort, except tallow candles. Domestic lighting improved with years. With the dawn of the 19th century, every home had its own stack of candles.

Primitive tallow candles: Primitive candles were nothing but a wick of several loosely twisted threads encrusted with tallow. Coarse cotton thread was used as wick to hold the tallow wax. The tallow candles were unruly and flickered time and again. Since the wicks were not self-consuming, the burnt wicks had to be cut every time the tallow candle flared up or flickered. Farmers or poor people who did not have enough wealth to kill cows for tallow, used candle-berry tree, also called as tallow shrub for making candles. The defect with these tallow shrub candles were, they did not soften or bend as easily as regular tallow candles. However, they burned brightly without foul odors. Tallow candles were considered as a possession till the late 18th century.

Old-time tallow candle making: Only rendered animal fat was used in candle making and mutton or pig fat was considered inappropriate compared to beef fat. This candle beef fat was scraped off generally from the butcher’s. Fatty matter that was scraped off at the tanner’s place had lowest content of usable tallow, while that which was directly obtained from the butcher’s had prime tallow. Nothing of the beef fat was wasted as women used almost all available, usable tallow in candle or soap making. Generally, tallow was made in the following method:

1. Rendering of tallow: Women melted the fatty mass in an iron pot over low fire. As the fat melted, they skimmed of the meat fragments and other impurities. After several hours of boiling, cracklings or other unwanted floating chunks were removed through sieving. Since tallow hardened at room temperature, women added water to the sieved, pure liquid and boiled it again in low temperature. Only after several hours of further boiling, the mixture was allowed to cool in an earthen pot. The cooled mixture formed a pure white tallow on top, with gelatin and other sediments below. The obtained tallow cake was used in candle making along with beeswax.

2. Two types of candles: An encyclopedist in 1849 wrote, “there were two types of tallow candles – dipped and molded. While the dipped are of old standing, the latter are said to be the invention of a Parisian”. Dipped candles were used in domestic lighting as they required no special expenses. A number of dipping rods, each holding 12 to 15 wicks were prepared in advance. Each wick was then dipped in melted tallow and allowed to cool. The process was continued till the tallow candle gained its desired size. Molded candles were a French invention, where people poured tallow wax  into molds to make candles.

3. Candle recipe: A candle recipe of the bygone eras read like this: Dissolve 25 lbs. of beef tallow in a copper or brass vessel by adding 20 lbs of water. Add 1-1/2 qt of brandy, 5 oz of tartar cream, 5 oz of ammoniac solution, 5 oz of tartar salt, 2 oz of dry and clean potash to the mixture. Once completely heated, cut the cake into slivers and allow to cool. Make wicks of best cotton steeped in wine or wax. Then, pour heated tallow in the moulds with wicks. Allow the mould to cool and then, shape your candles for use.

The whole process can be divided into three stages: Skinning, Preparing and Tanning. Below is the step-by-step process on how to make prepare and tan hides (into leather) at your home:

Skinning:

1. Remove the hide from the animal carcass using a skinning knife. Hang the carcass upside down while doing it. Then, attach the skin to a stretching frame and allow it to cool.

2. Once cooled, lay the skin on a flat surface and scrape off all fat or animal substance from the flesh side of the hide. Use a blunt kitchen knife to do this. See to it that you don’t cut or scratch the hide while doing so.

3. After scraping, spread and rub salt on to the flesh side, working it all the way up to the edge of the skin. Use 1 lb. salt for one pound of the hide.

4. Fold the salted sides together and put them on a slope for two to three days to let the liquid drain away. After two days, wipe out old salt and apply new salt and rub thoroughly. Let it remain for another two days and dry. But keep the hide away from direct sunlight.

Preparation before tanning: Before you start the tanning process, you need to prepare the hide for it:

5. Prepare a borax solution with warm, soft water. If you are not able to find soft water, you can collect rainwater and heat it to make it warm. Use 1 oz. of borax per every gallon of warm water. The amount of the solution prepared should fit your hide well.

6. Now, soak the hide in the borax solution for three to five days. Scrape of all the salt before you do so, and keep stirring the solution several times a day with a  wooden paddle or a stick (if it suffices the purpose). After 5 days, remove the hide and rinse well and then, scrape off all fat, flesh and membranes that cover the flesh side of the hide.

7. Prepare a solution with warm soft water and agricultural line. Mix 8 lbs of lime and then soak the hide in it. Let it sit for 3 days to 6 weeks, depending on the conditions of your weather. Stir several times a day and see to it that the hair in the fur side comes out. After this process, remove the hide and place the fur side up and scrape of hair using the blunt side of a fleshing knife. Then, soak the hide again, say for 24 hours in a solution containing warm soft water, 5 oz of lactic acid and 2 ½ qt of vinegar. After 24 hours, clean the hide in clean water.

Tanning process: Tanning is a difficult process and this is where you need beef tallow:

8. Prepare a solution with water, salt (½ lb for every gallon of water) and sulphuric acid (½ oz for every gallon of water) and soak the hide for 3 days. After the period, lift the hide and rinse it in clean water several times.

9. Next, rinse the hide in a solution of borax (2 lbs for every 40 gallons of water) and then, soak it overnight.

10. Take it out of borax solution and apply a thin layer of oil to the hide. Wipe off excess oil and work on it till the hide is soft and supple.

11. Mix l lb of beef tallow and 1 lb of Neat’s foot oil and apply it to the fur side of the hide. Work on it several times to soften the leather.

12. Last, rub both the sides of the leather with fine sandpaper to smoothen the surface and make it more supple. Once all these are done, your hide will be ready for use as leather.

1. What is tallow acid? Tallow acid is a fatty acid derived from animal fat, mostly beef fat. It is found in a variety of products, especially cosmetics, soaps, detergents and even in cooking. A fatty acid, tallow acid is formed by the breaking down of fat. It is formed by what is technically termed as oleochemistry, the process by which body fat is converted into fatty acids. A brief of tallow acid formation process: Hydrolysis is performed on beef tallow with the appropriate temperature and pressure to split the fats into crude forms. Then, the formed crude acids are purified by distillation and then saturated by increasing the melting point or hydrogenation. Fractional distillation is used to identify fatty acids of desired chain length.

2. Tallow as fatty acid: Though many talk ill of tallow acid, it has to be remembered that tallow acid is a fatty acid that contains a lot of saturated fats. It is a great source of energy and helps in addition of healthy fat content to the body when used in cooking. It is also one of the harder oils (like coconut oil, olive oil and ghee) and owing to its high boiling point, it can be used for deep frying. McDonald’s used beef tallow oil to cook French fries before they shifted to vegetable oil.

3. Tallow acid – uses: Uses of tallow acid are multifarious. A few common uses are tallow acid is used in products like bar soap, body wash, liquid hand soap and other rich and creamy lather soaps. Sometimes manufacturers use it in detergents, fabric softeners and other cleaning substances, insect repellents, germicides, insecticides, lubricants, water treatment agents and pigment modification products. Tallow acid is a great preservative which is used as an addictive in food or other chemical packaging.

4. Tallow acid and toxicity: Research in the recent times have suggested that Tallow acid maybe toxic to aquatic life of fish and plants. The Canadian Environmental Domestic Substance List terms tallow acid as a low human health product owing to its environmentally hazardous properties. However, in  2006, the United States FDA Food Addictive status announced that tallow acid is safe when used in limited amounts in human food. So far nothing potentially harmful has been reported in tallow acid.

5. When is tallow acid hazardous? According to the cosmetic safety database, it is confirmed that tallow acid can be hazardous when used in its raw form. However, enough studies have not been done to confirm the safety of use of tallow acid in cosmetic products.

Before we go into details on how to make tallow candles, understand that tallow is the rendered form of raw red meat or suet. It is a rendered form of beef fat, meaning commercialized fat useful for soap making, biodiesel preparation and a lot of other things. Tallow candles were in use right from the early centuries as they are easy and simple to make even at home.

How to make beef tallow candles: Candle preparation first involves preparation of tallow. Yes, you need to first render the tallow and then, use it in candle preparation. Tallow candles are made in two different forms – Mold candles and Dip candles. Since there is nothing different in the quality of both the candles, you can choose to make candles through the preparation method that suits you. Below are a few steps to make tallow candles:

Step 1: Making tallow from suet: Tallow rendering can be made at home without any possible hiccups. A good tallow contains about 1/3 beef fat with mutton added for mustard flavor. To harden the prepared tallow, you need to dip it in mixture 1 and mixture 2. Mixture 1 consists of 50% of stearic acid, 44% tallow, 3% camphor, 2% white resins, with 1% of gum danar.  Mixture II comprises of 70% of tallow, 24% tallow, 3% camphor, 2% white wax and 1% gum danar.

Step 2. Making candle wicks: Before starting to make candles, you need to first get ready with the candle wicks. An ideal wick for candles of 8 to the pound is about 40 threads, while that for candles of 6 to the pound is 50 threads of yarn. The yarn needs to be twisted together to make wicks. No.16 in the market is the most suitable and desirable wick for the purpose.

Step 3. Making mold candles: There are both advantages and disadvantages in mold candles. They are: many mold candles require molds which means money in the candle industry. This is why several cottage or homemade businesses prefer dip candles to mold. Once the mold designs are ready and the wicks are finalized, the wicks are inserted into the center of each mold. Once the wicks are in place, melted beef tallow is poured into the molds and then, allowed to cool for about 6 hours.

Step 4. Making dip candles: Dip candles are pretty easy to make. It is made by looping a number of wicks  over a rod and then dipped straight into the tallow wax. Once the required thickness is attained, the tallow is allowed to cool and harden before taking the second dip. With this method, you need to be adaptive for everything. You need to find a suitable feature to hold the rod while drying it with beef tallow. This is to avoid dripping in the dips.