So we have been rendering fat from our deer to make soap and lotion. I have been straining it through various cheesecloths, then, juice strainer filters from Blaine's farm and fleet which seems to have a tighter weave fabric, but still it takes several renderings to get the fat clear and I still see some very slight colors at the bottom of my containers I transfer the fat into once I simmer all the water out. I'm done rendering 5-6-7 times though the same ole fabric filters (even doubling up the filters to try and filter it better) it's beginning to waste my time. There has to be a better filter. So I looked into what size mesh typical cheese cloth and fabric juice filters are that I've been using and I believe them to be somewhere between 50- 100 (at best) size mesh. And obviously they're fabric, so as I hand wash them between renders over and over, the fibers of these filters have to be slowly degrading and opening up just like an old shirt that's been washed a hundred times. So I found these stainless steel mesh filters on Amazon with a wide range of mesh levels from 20 all the way on up to 2800 mesh (which I'm thinking is damn near airtight lol) and being stainless they would be much more durable and last much longer. So, do any of you possibly know what size mesh would be preferable for fat rending while still being tight enough to pour liquid hot fat though and strain out all impurities and solids, while at the same time not overkill and being so tight of a mesh that the fat barely drips though and takes all day long. I'm saying this because I've also tried to use a standard coffee filter which Google tells me could be anywhere from 300-600 mesh, and the fat barely dripped though. It was so inefficient I had to spoon it over the filters with a rubber band holding them atop of a bunch of mason jars. Seemed to get it clean, but took so long the fat actually hardened back up and I had to put the whole contraption inside a large pot with a lid on and some water on low heat to get the fat to stay hot enough to leak though the filter. Also was excruciatingly slow. If anyone has some insight as to what mesh level performs best for cleaning fat micro solids, and still being efficient enough to at least ladel the liquid fat though, let me know. Thank you
by Puzzled_Discount_804
3 Comments
Look up a chinois , finest mesh cooking filter for kitchens, then you can put it through maybe a coffee filter
No idea, but you’d want to stack them in layers in order of biggest to smallest on the bottom so it drips down slowly and filters out.
Other than that I would say you can find paint filters in the shape of a cone for spray guns for super cheap, they fit onto a jar really well. They work great for straining paint into a spray gun, so they should probably work well for this also. Other than that just keep on with the cheese cloth and fold it over more.
Also, if you render in water, fridge it till it hardens, scoop the top off, do it again, then filter that should help a lot to filter and make it a nice white.
I use a grease filter from a restaurant store. I is a really big stainless steel cone sometimes called a witches hat. The first pass uses just the steel to get out any small chunks. The second pass you use the filters. They look like really big cone coffee filters.
These things are made to get small crumbs out of frying oil so you can keep using it without getting icky