Tallow Candles
Today I turned this
[Five jars of fat drippings drained off of ground beef on a kitchen countertop]
into this
[A lit jar candle on a kitchen countertop]
The first thing I did was turn on my slow cooker, and put as many jars as would fit into it with their lids off, then filled the space around them with water and waited for everything to heat up
[Jars of fat drippings inside a slow cooker]
Next I got a jar with a nice lip for pouring, a funnel, a mesh sieve, and some cheesecloth. I put the funnel in the jar, and the sieve in the funnel, and the cheesecloth in the sieve
[Cheesecloth inside a sieve, inside a funnel, inside a canning jar]
Once the contents of the jars in the slow cooker are all liquid, the tallow will separate from the water and other stuff and will float on top, making it easy to pour off through the cheesecloth (etc.) and into the jar
[A jar full of golden liquid tallow]
You might be wondering why I didn't pour it directly into my candle jar. Well, this is just a precaution to make sure the tallow is separated and pure. What if I accidentally poured in some of the water or bits of food? That wouldn't make for a very nice candle. This way I can ensure only tallow makes it into my candle.
Next I'm going to get my candle jar ready. You'll of course need a jar, but you'll also need these
[A container of wax adhesive and a spool of cotton wick]
You'll also need a pen/pencil/stick for the top of the wick. The wick's purpose is obvious, and the wax adhesive will keep your wick stuck to the bottom of the jar. So, I took the end of my wick and rubbed it in the adhesive to make it sticky, then planted it in the center of the bottom of the jar. Then I wrapped the other end around a pen to keep the wick centered (more or less) while the tallow was being poured and was cooling
[An empty candle jar with a wick inside it suspended by a purple pen resting across the top of the jar]
At this point it's time to pour the tallow into the candle jar!
[A candle jar filled with golden tallow with a wick suspended by a purple pen resting across the top of the jar]
At this point, you just wait for the tallow to cool. I put them in the fridge to speed this up, but found out after the fact that this can cause condensation in your candle, which will cause lots of sputtering and flickering. But it went away after a little while.
Once the tallow is solid, trim the wick to about 1/4 inch and enjoy!
[Two pictures of a golden jar candle on a kitchen counter, the right one is lit, the left one is not]
I was surprised, these candles (I ended up making eight total in various sizes) didn't have any scent to them. I was half expecting a burger scented candle! But since they don't really smell, you could probably add your choice of oils/fragrances to make scented candles if you want to. I may do so in the future.
