'Candles' made from lard

[Mr R]

ADMIN.: Hopefully this hasn't been covered before (I have searched) - if it has, please feel free to move it to the correct thread.

Possibly one for nickdutch. I am currently cooking some pork chops - fresh from the farm, marinated overnight in soy sauce and lemon. If I say so myself, they are looking rather nice! Anyway, I digress...

Does anyone have any experience in making 'candles' from the resulting lard? Please note that I don't intend to use them in the house - I don't think that the perfume of burning pig fat wafting around the house would be permitted, however, there must be a good use for the surplus lard.

[redskies]

It's possible to do, and the bits are freely available. You'd do best to use jars, with screwtop lids, and you can get the wicking and the wee bit to hold it in the bottom online. I think I may even have a link somewhere! If you leave a gap at the top of the jar, it'll shield the flame from the wind.

The other option is to turn it into soap, which is what at least some of it would have been used for in years past.

[redskies]

Quick link to some wicking supplies. And they have soy wax too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/soy-wax/s?ie=UT ... Asoy%20wax

[nickdutch]

I have tried making oil lamps with animal fats years ago. It smoked black smoke and smelled ghastly. I cant recall what fat it was, I think it was just pig fat. The flame was bright. I saw a youtube video a while ago about a man who made fat candles from deer fat (correction: Tallow not fat!), but he was an American rustic who does a lot of deer hunting.

If you do animal fat candles, make sure that you know how to store them. My DIY and not very well done ones went off.

[ForgeCorvus]

Lard is the worst fat for making candles, according to everything I've read it stinks and gives a poor and smokey light.

Tallow is rendered and purified from suet (normally beef or mutton fat, but deer and other hebivores are also used)
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.co.uk ... -uses.html
Tallow stores well where as suet doesn't

You can also use butter as a fuel for candles..... I don't know what that would smell like though

[Steveo82]

Lard is the worst fat for making candles, according to everything I've read it stinks and gives a poor and smokey light.

Tallow is rendered and purified from suet (normally beef or mutton fat, but deer and other hebivores are also used)
http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.co.uk ... -uses.html
Tallow stores well where as suet doesn't

You can also use butter as a fuel for candles..... I don't know what that would smell like though

This video looks like a good flame but i could smell beacon when i watched it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NoWVU_Fl4

[piglet]

During the multiple power cuts of the 70's, candles were almost impossible to obtain where we lived, and my mother resorted to making candles from Beef lard packages, from the local butcher.

They worked ok, but as already mentioned, smoked a lot, and the smell was quite strong and unpleasant.

[Mr R]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

This is clearly something not to do in the house, but may be useful in an emergency.

During the multiple power cuts of the 70's, candles were almost impossible to obtain where we lived, and my mother resorted to making candles from Beef lard packages, from the local butcher.

They worked ok, but as already mentioned, smoked a lot, and the smell was quite strong and unpleasant.

My memories of the power-cuts were having to go to bed even earlier! Oh, the good old days.....

[redskies]

Just remembered about this too!


http://lifehacker.com/5827780/make-an-e ... -of-crisco