Rendering Fat from Meat

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Most if not all of us have rendered fat out of bacon at some point. I also occasionally see mentions of rendering fat out of other things. This is the first time I have rendered chicken fat. I am in the process of developing a recipe, and I had some fatty pieces of chicken. Normally, I would have either trimmed the fat, or thrown it in the pan with the fat attached to the meat.

this time, I decided to render the fat, and use it to cook the rest of the dish. I will reference this when I post the recipe, but here I want to show just the rendering part.

What remains is not a delicious, crispy morsel that would result from rendering bacon fat. Instead, it’s chewy and just about inedible.

What other things have the rest of you rendered?

 

[caseydog]

Sous vide offers a great way to render fat over time, without overcooking the meat. If I sous vide a fatty cut of meat, like a ribeye steak for two hours, I end up with a perfect medium rare steak with well rendered fat -- and a bag of good beef juices for making a gravy.

I am sure you would get the same results with some chicken thighs.

CD

 

[medtran49]

It looks like you might have had too much meat attached to the fat and that's why you didn't get the nice crispy crackling. I render the fat and the skin, especially when I'm making something like soup, and use it for garnish. In fact, we have an Asian chicken soup on our upcoming menu that I planned to do just that so I'll try to remember to take pics. I start it out really, really low, then turn the heat up a bit at the end to get things nice and crispy.

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Thank you for your tips. This was fat trimmed from skinless chicken, but I will look for the kind with skin on next time and give that a try when I render in the pan. And, I will definitely try the sous vide method, too.

 

[rascal]

I collect bacon fat from grilling my wife's bacon.

Russ

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I collect bacon fat from grilling my wife's bacon.

Russ

I do, too. I usually only use oil for convenience: I love the flavor that bacon grease adds.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I do, too. I usually only use oil for convenience: I love the flavor that bacon grease adds.

That is the only fat that I save also!! I keep it in the fridge so that it won't spoil or go rancid!!

 

[ThatDude]

Another good option especially if dealing with a fair amount to render, is just on a sheet pan in the oven. You can kind of set it and forget it, and when you start to smell it, it's generally done. Strain out the solids for crunchy oven-fried bits.

 

[GadgetGuy]

At times, especially for dried beans or greens, I just throw the crumbs & fat right into those items to help season them!!