Wives don't appreciate degreasing elk skulls in the laundry room utility sink...

Would she rather have you do it in the kitchen sink?

or the bathtub?

When we were first married, I boiled a deer skull on the stove in the kitchen. Took a little time to get over that one.

Rendering bear fat on our kitchen stove strained our relationship a tad.

Eventually, we compromised ... I would render the umpteen pounds of fat outside on the Coleman stove and she would cook human (and dog) food on the stove.

Later, the little woman killed one hell of a bear ... a fat one ... and things changed a bit.

Strange about that

kd

Kududude,
Just curious, what do you use rendered bear fat for? I'm not a bear hunter so I don't know anything about it. Don't mean to derail the thread.

Looks good to me.

well women all their, demand...do what you have to do but keep them happy;

As long as your clean up your mess... and do not destroy things in the doing... they should be quiet.... as it is your home also ! And then the fight began.... LOL ! HH

Done that! In her favorite " candy pan ". Thought it was going to be the world's shortest marriage. 36 years ago.

Easy. Put a bunch of fat in a large kettle and turn on the heat. The clear stuff will appear and that's what you put in jars to save. There is a "residue" that is seemingly identical to pork "cracklings" and it's absolutely delicious to eat.

The process of heating the fat stinks a mite

kd

No foul, play on.

I ran across this item on using bear far. Be sure your wife reads it carefully, especially the part about using it instead of lard for making soap. How do we live without it?



Bear fat is probably one of the most versatile substances known in north America. The early Europeans used it, the native Americans used it centuries long before the first white ever set foot on this soil.

Don't overlook this addition to your survival kills or the yummy addition of making the best pie crusts or pastries you'll probably ever bake. I'm jumping ahead here.

As any bear hunter will attest to, even an average sized blackie will have a couple inches fat on it if the year hasn't been too dry and their food sources were plentiful.

There are some guidelines I've always used in regard to using bear fat. The main one is, don't take a bear that's been feeding all summer on fish if your main goal is using for cooking and baking. Man, but it may end up stinking like dead fish, and the meat may also, and the fat for sure.

Try to get away from the fish filled bears and try for a berry fed one. I'm not saying all coastal or salmon run fed bears will not have good fat or meat, I'm just saying in my experience, the ones full of berries and other vegetation taste, and certainly, smell better.

So what can you use bear fat for besides cooking?
1. to condition and waterproof and treat leathers
2. oiling down your gun and other mechanical parts in emergencies
3. a skin ointment for minor burns, chapped or dry skin.
4. it has even been used to prevent head lice by working it into the hair because the nits can't stick to it for long term, hardcore, survival situations
5. you can use it to make small dish candles - put it in a tuna can, roll up some cloth strips and make you a little wick, light it and it'll burn just like a little oil lantern will.
6. mixed with good medicinal herbs, it can be applied to treats insect bites, cuts, scrapes and other injuries.
7. makes a good fire starter if it's raining
8. use it to make soap in place of pig lard
9. use it as a barter item
10. use to feed your pets or stock.

So nature provides yet another multi-useful item.

Once bear fat is rendered down, it can be stored in just about anything, doesn't have to be refrigerated, can be frozen and still keeps it's consistency when thawed.

It can also be rendered down lower to produce a good oil with same and similar uses.

It'll pay to remember bear fat as a good addition to your backwoods knowledge chest.

Rock Chuck,

I agree totally on all counts. Finest leather dressing there is and great for pies and such.

One more use: I've occasionally given a pint jar or two to friends who are into the teepee/pioneer reenactment thing. They really love using bear grease as a bullet patch lube and for waterproofing their muzzleloaders. Hey, it's authentic and I've gotten several "manhugs" for such a gift.

kd

Rock Chuck and Kududude,

Thanks for the bear fat info, fellas. That's interesting.

Try to get the wife going on using bear fat for everything, including head lice, and a REAL fight might start.

My wife wasn't pleased when I used her "drink cooler" either..

Hey Twitch--goes for Mom's too.
A young friend of mine, in the early days of his taxidermy trade, was still living at home with his folks.
I came to help him with some reloading, and as he was in the basement, he called for me to come on down to his loading bench.
As I entered I noticed a strong odor emanating from the kitchen(ie. to gag a maggot).
He had an antelope skull boiling full tilt on the stove in one of his moms large stew pans.
His mom arrived shortly thereafter...I departed shortly thereafter.
He got better later.

Bear grease was the best muzzle loader patch lube I've ever used.

Welcome to the fire Twitch..

Thanks Santiam, I've drifted through these parts a time or two, just never stepped up to memorize another forum moniker and password. Reckon you've seen me other places

Guess I am just lucky, as the wife fully understands drying wall tents in the living room, the need for a variety of arms and rods, and will buck up with no complaints in whatever weather mother nature dishes out.

Thats awful narrow minded of her ...Least U didn't use the wash machine a few feet away...GRINNN...

It's your house too. At least you're not cooking it on the stove.

So how do you rendered bear fat? Just cook it down or what?

In answer to a couple posts.

One can render bear fat down by slow cooking on a stove under relatively low heat, ( a cast iron pan works well) then pouring the lard off, and letting it cool/harden. Low heat- don't burn it! Remove the cracklings when rendered out and just keep adding...

Makes the best pastries/pies ever!

Assuming it is not tainted with wild onions or such...

I have previously posted a picture of skinning out a frozen caribou in the living room.... coming up on 40 (marriage) - you would think she'd be used to this kind of stuff by now, but noooooo....

Never rendered bear fat, but have done a lot of pork fat, on the kitchen stove. I always put a little water in at first to keep from scorching the fat. It will go away as steam as the rendering processes. miles

Not bear fat, but it gives an idea as to the feelings about grease by other cultures.

Good Grease
The hunters went out with guns
at dawn.
We had no meat in the village,
no food for the tribe and the dogs.
No caribou in the caches.

All day we waited.
At last!
As darkness hung at the river
we children saw them far away.
Yes! They were carrying caribou!
We jumped and shouted!

By the fires that night
we feasted.

The old ones chuckled,
sucking and smacking,
sopping the juices with sourdough bread.
The grease would warm us
when hungry winter howled.

Grease was beautiful
oozing,
dripping and running down our chins,
brown hands shining with grease.
We talk of it
when we see each other
far from home.

Remember the marrow
sweet in the bones?
We grabbed for them like candy.
Good.
Gooooood.

Good grease.

Mary TallMountain


Had a friend who always had a can of bear grease around for his boots. I sure miss him and his ways.

Geno

Yup.

Bill

I had a friend that thought he would render some bear fat down and use it on his boots.I don't know what he did wrong,but when he brought his boots into the tent,I gagged.

Same bear,he cut up and put it in his freezer. The kids were playing in the garage where the freezer was one day and must have unplugged it. About two weeks later, he had cause to open the freezer. He called me quick to help him get it out of the garage and it was really putrid.I have smelled dead humans that were pretty ripe,but they wouldn't compare to that smell. We tried scrubbing it out but no way could we get the smell out.The freezer ended up in the county dump the next day.

This all occurred in about 1967 or so. I have had an aversion to bears since then. I still remember that smell.

happy wife, happy life !

Thanks las.

Jacuzzi ?

had the same thing happen, but worse than rotten bear is rotten Salmon. lost a freezer to that mishap.

I've been here a long while, but I sure can't recall that!

Can you post up some pictures? I'd like to see that!

Takes me back to the days when I was a student living in an apartment with a kitchenette so tiny that I had blood half way up all four walls from butchering a moose calf! (sadly no pictures, but it looked like a very gruesome crime scene!)

John