Always dumped our fat trimmings, but a composting talk got me rethinking...

I figured it was just messy waste to get rid of. Then someone showed me how rendering it down cuts landfill use and even makes cooking grease. Anyone else try turning scraps into something useful?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_miles3mo ago

It's part of a bigger shift back to making use of what we have. We threw out so much knowledge when we switched to buying everything ready-made.

the_diana3mo ago

Rendering fat cuts landfill use? That's wild to hear. I just figured it was nasty trash that needed dumping. But you're saying we can turn it into something good instead?

eva_hayes1mo ago

Oh wow, that's exactly what I thought too at first... until my buddy Sam started messing around with tallow last year. He got a big bag of beef fat from a local butcher and rendered it down in his slow cooker. The smell was a little funky, not gonna lie, but he ended up with these jars of pure white fat that he uses for cooking and even made some hand soap with lye. He said it saved him from tossing like five pounds of greasy waste that would have just sat in a landfill bag. @the_miles is totally right, we lost so many old-school tricks like this that are actually way smarter than just throwing stuff away. It's kind of cool seeing people dig up that knowledge and put it to use again.