It's Wicked Hawt So I'm Giving Stuff Away

As well as disgustingly humid and generally gross. It doesn't feel like June at all, more like August. Alas, electricity for the AC is pricey so it stays off until bedtime. I try and keep busy to take my mind off the heat.


First off I finally got a meat grinder. Not one of those fancy schmancy ones, not an attachment for my kitchenaid but an old fashioned hand crank meat grinder. I've been trying to track one down for a while and finally managed to wrangle one. My husband took one look at it and stated that he wasn't cranking it, we'll see how badly he wants what comes out of it.

I need a grinder for a few reasons. First we buy our meat locally from a farm. My sister, parents and I split a whole cow and a whole pig once a year. We get it butchered but some things need a little more work than your basic kitchen supplies. I need the grinder because it also stuffs sausages and hot dogs. Have you priced those lately? I'll make my own and ummm no recalls.

Second, a cow doesn't just come with meat. There's all sorts of other "parts" that you're paying for so you might as well use them up. Organ meat gets cooked, ground and baked into doggy treats. Bones and tail get made into stock for soups, WAY better than canned.

Finally there's the fat. Now pork fat becomes lard, great for pie crust and no transfats. The fat from around the cows organs, suet, becomes tallow. Now neither of these things come easy or quick. Both have to be cleaned and rendered (boiled) so you end up with nice clean stuff at the end. The grinder will help this process immensely. The smaller you can get the pieces the easier it is to render.

I use the tallow, along with some coconut oil, to make one of my favorite house cleaners, soap. Yup plain ole soap grated into flakes. Mix it up with some hot water, maybe a little borax or washing soda and you can clean just about anything. Follow up with a vinegar or water rinse and stuff just shines. OK it's not PLAIN soap, I add tea tree and citrus oils. It smells good, kinda clean. Even hubby likes it. It's green, it cleans, and it smells nice what more could you ask for?

Of course there's a lot of tallow to be had from a whole cow, and it makes a lot of soap. Since we're picking up our annual meat supply in about a month I've got to render out what's left in the freezer from last year and make more soap. Of course I still have a lot of soap left from last time so I've decided to give some away. It's all grated and good to go and I'll ship 1 pound of it to a person chosen at random who posts a comment to this post. The cutoff is June 20th at 5pm.