WEBVTT - Dummies Guide to Making and Using Bear Oil 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.800 The Sportsman's Nation podcast network is brought to you by 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:06.359 on x hunt, bringing you the best GPS mapping software 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:09.520 directly to your smartphone or desktop. On x offers you 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.960 the ability to see property boundaries, mark way points, track 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.360 your location, and so much more. Visit on x maps 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.000 dot com or you can download it directly from your 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:23.040 app store today. Save off of your purchase by using 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:27.400 the code Nation twenty at checkout. That's capital in Nation 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:35.320 followed by the number twenty. My name is Clay Nukeleman. 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.920 I'm the host of the Bear Honey magazine podcast. I'll 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.839 also be your host into the world of hunting the 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:47.400 icon of the North American wilderness Prepare. We'll talk about tactics, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.879 gear conservation. We will also bring you into some of 0:00:50.920 --> 0:01:00.880 the wildest country on the planet chasing bare. I hope 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:07.680 everybody is navigating through the COVID Night Team coronavirus stuff 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.840 that's going on all across the world. Pretty interesting times 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.200 we live in. The bad news for bear hunters is 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:16.600 that those are black. Bear Bonanza has been canceled. We 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.560 said that on the last the last podcast, but I 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:22.720 wanted to say it again. But we're gonna We're postponing it, 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:26.240 and it's gonna happen sometime hopefully later the spring. So 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.520 we're gonna do that again, sponsored by the back country 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.959 Hunters and Anglers. We're gonna be doing the Ozark Black 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:36.360 Bear Bonanza sometime later this spring. Hey, this this is 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:40.720 a great time to check out bear dash Hunting dot com, 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.600 Bear hyphen Hunting dot com. We've got right now, we've 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.880 got our bear Hunter retro hats on sale. Yeah. So 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.360 this is like one of our most popular styles of 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.440 has just says bear Hunter. It's retro because we got 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.000 the image from like an old patch. I saw in 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.320 a picture that some old dude had on a hat 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.360 and some old picture and it was this bear like growling, 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.639 said bear Hunter. So we made a cool hat, trucker style, 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:09.400 trucker style. Yeah. And so people can go to our 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.639 website look up retro bear Hunter hat. Get I think, uh, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.079 how much off? I think it's now? Yeah, so it's 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.480 a couple of bucks off to check that out, and hey, 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.120 check out Bear Hunting Magazine. I mean, that's that is 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.720 the primary thing that we do. A lot of people 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:26.480 know us from YouTube, a lot of people know us 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.000 from the podcast, but we produce a seventy two page, 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:36.560 full color, six times a year magazine full of great stuff, 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:38.680 full of a lot more stuff than we can even 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:43.680 talk about on the podcast. Recipes, columns, bear Hounds, stuff, spotting, 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:50.880 stock stuff, bear baits stuff, tactics, gear, adventure stories, Bear outfitters, 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.040 my goodness, brothers. If you ever need a bear outfitter, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.639 we got them, We got them, and we know these people. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:58.800 Call the office, tell us where you want to go, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.520 tell us what your price inches. We are bar Outfitters 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.240 are the best in the world, and we know a 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.240 lot of them, and we that's that's what we do. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.600 So check out Bear Hunting Magazine. Hey, if you want 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.720 a five dollars office, we're gonna go ahead and tell 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.760 him Colby. Let's just tell him b h M twenty 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:22.799 and get five dollars off a new subscription. So that's 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.079 for a new subscription, it's not for renewals. Five dollars 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.480 off for a new subscription into the code b h 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.840 M check out. Hey, this is a fun podcast about 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:38.880 how to make bar oil, bear grease, bear lard, bear tallow. 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:44.440 We go through all the yeah, everything about about bear grease. 0:03:45.600 --> 0:04:01.800 It's a good one. We are at the Bear Honey 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:08.000 Magazine Global headquarters on quarantine. Social distancing is happening here, 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:12.200 Colby sitting totally across the room for me, we're legitimately 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.040 a spear linkal spear length. Yeah, about a spear length. 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:17.919 There's a spear up on the wall. We're about that 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.760 far away. Hey, so I've got I've got Colby the 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.760 bear Tech more head with me, the Global Bear Tech 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.520 Global Bear Tech. Hey, we're gonna do something different than 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.120 we usually do. You know, there's a lot of different 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:33.320 kinds of podcasts, Colby. There's like short podcasts that like 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.839 have a prescribed time. They're like twenty minutes long, and 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.360 they're just like pounding out information and asking questions. That 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.200 would be like you know, like information based podcast. And 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.400 then there's like a long form conversational top podcast, which 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:49.800 is typically what we would have. They would have no 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.480 end time. You know, it might go two hours, might 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.599 go an hour and a half, Rabbit trails. It's conversational, 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:00.679 long form stuff. Yeah, that's my natural ten see inside 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.680 of communications. So that's usually what we do. And I 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.279 think when you communicate like that, you mine out a 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:11.000 lot of nuggets of information and and stuff about the 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.800 person and stories that are cool. Yeah. Okay, there's a 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.120 third kind of podcast that This one is gonna be 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.479 topic based. Topic based podcast where we pick out a 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.920 topic and we we're gonna take our time, but we're 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:29.240 gonna mine into the facts, the figures, the everything there 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.760 has to do with this certain topic and we're gonna 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.920 talk about it. Okay, and that topic today it is 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:41.159 bear grease, bear grease, chewing the fat, chewing the fat, 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:46.080 rendering the fat. So we're gonna just jump right into 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:49.000 talking about kind of a systematic way. First of all, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.400 we're gonna talk about how to harvest the bear fat 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:54.600 off of a bear, like where you're gonna find out 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.719 what to do proper handling and freeze it, all this 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.839 kind of stuff. We're gonna talk about best practices of rendering. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.559 So we're gonna talk about how to render the fat, 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.599 and then we're gonna talk about uses. So once you 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.440 have this, what do you do with it? And then 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:12.560 we're gonna end the podcast with talking about some historical 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:18.480 significance and some kind of fun facts about bargrease. That's 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.719 what we're gonna do. I like it. Okay, First of all, 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.120 let's talk about terminology. There's a lot of different terminology 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:29.640 with this. We're going with bear grease. Um, but it 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.080 could also be called beare oil. Yes, Like if you're 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.560 doing an Internet search, you might find this topic under 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:43.559 bare oil, bare grease, or bear lardy or rendered bear fat, 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:49.600 hurt them all, a lot of different possibilities. Bare grease 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:54.960 is kind of like the historical, kind of old version 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.120 of of the way to say it in uh gir 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.160 stokers Look written in eighteen thirty seven about his travels 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.320 and hunting in the Ozarks, which we're gonna do a 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.000 podcast at some point about specifically about that book Wild Sport, 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.880 Wild Sports, Yeah, by Frederick Gerstalker. His dog was named 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:17.040 bear grease. Pretty cool, okay, and so um, but if 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.120 you were being more technical, you probably call it bear 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.400 lard or bear oil, okay. And so that's what that's 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:28.080 for our purposes, bear grease. So the first topic at 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:33.520 hand is where do you get bear fat? I think 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.240 step one located bear go back to all the other 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.200 podcasts to learn how to kill a bear? Yeah, yeah, 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.280 all right, so you knowledge while you're quarantine, you can 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:48.280 learn how to pursue bear, pursue and overtake and kill 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:52.480 a bear in multiple different settings and locations. Yeah, whatever, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.880 however you do it, Yeah, kill a bear. Okay, Um, 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.280 so you have to find a dead bear. So let 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:01.800 me use the success has already been achieved. Its success 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.800 has been achieved. We've covered that another podcast Feeling good 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.600 about yourself? Now it's time to get right right. Um. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.040 Some people may have never skinned a bear, and and 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.480 and so when you think of like lots of fat, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:17.720 like you wouldn't find this kind of fat like on 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.320 a deer or on an elk. And sometimes you'll find 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.320 uh elker deer that would have, you know, quite a 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.440 bit of fat like on the rum. But this is 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:31.920 way different. Um. Basically, basically, when you skin a bear, 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.400 he is gonna depend upon what time of year it is. 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.600 If it's the spring, he's gonna have less fat. If 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.040 it's the fall, he could potentially have a lot of fat. 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:41.000 You could also kill a bear in the fall that 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.640 didn't have much fat at all. So it's not guaranteed 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.240 that you're gonna have a lot of fat. Um, if 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:49.439 you killed the bear in mid September, you're gonna have 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.480 less fat than if you killed that bear on November thirty, say, 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:57.000 like the Arkansas bear season last November. I killed a 0:08:57.040 --> 0:09:00.720 bear one time on November and he was an absolute 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:06.240 butter ball of fat. Bears typically store their fat on 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.160 their rump, like the biggest the biggest collection of fat 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:11.800 is gonna be on the bear's rump, but it could 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.920 be all over his body, um, going all the way 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.480 down the top of the back where you'll typically find it. 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.280 It's from the shoulder blades all the way back down 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.280 the body, about halfway down the rib cage to the rump. 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.360 But that's really where they store this, like the big 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.800 chunks of fat. And so you're you're gonna skin this 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.520 bear just like you would a white tailed deer essentially, Um, 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.800 I mean you're gonna you're gonna make cuts from the 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.000 from the ankles down the inside of the leg to 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.480 the center of the chest. Uh on both sides. You're 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.440 gonna make a split down the belly, and essentially you're 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.680 gonna quarter this animal. But you're gonna want to harvest 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.360 some filets of fat off of this bear, which by 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.319 filets would mean don't do your best to not get 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.760 any little chunks of meat inside the fat in this 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.439 that is gonna be it? Could it could differ in color, 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.800 but typically it's like a pearly white I mean even 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:13.600 like bright white, kind of granular looking fat like uh, 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:18.640 pig fat is kind of has a real tight texture. 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.240 Beaver fat has a has a little bit bigger grain 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.280 to it almost, if I could describe it that way, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.280 it's it's uh. And and so you're just gonna take 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.200 off like usable chunks of fat, like, um, well, this 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.400 bear that I killed, we were literally cutting off four 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:42.720 inch thick, probably twelve inch long slabs eight inches wide 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.040 that weighed twenty pounds. I went home and weighed a 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:47.680 piece of fat that I brought home in a weigh 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.600 twenty pounds. Yeah, usually it's gonna be the smaller pieces. 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.640 You're gonna be chunking off little pieces. And I would 0:10:54.679 --> 0:11:01.800 say that you need about you need about probably you know, 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.960 taking home like five pounds of fat would probably get 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:09.400 you started. Yeah, a couple of jars and uh, from 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:13.320 the from the collection that I've done one pound. I'm 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.280 looking on my notes here. Uh. We did an article 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:22.200 on Barony magazine, uh in the September October issue basically, Uh, 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:29.240 let's see, let's see, I'm looking for my one pound 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.960 of fat. Basically, we'll get you about a pint of 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.400 liquid oil. Yeah, I'm I'm looking for that here, depending 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:41.400 on how well it renders. Yeah. Um so one that's 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.280 a pretty good that's a pretty good equation, is that 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.920 one pound of fat is gonna render about a pint 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:53.160 of oil. Okay, but there's different methods for rendering it, 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.600 and some of them are gonna be more efficient than others. 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.000 But you've got this bare fat, You're gonna treat it 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.200 just like a piece of meat. Like if you're if 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.520 you have if you have game bags and you're hauling 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:06.040 a bear out of the back country, you're just gonna 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.040 pitch them in there. Yeah, You're just gonna put them 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.840 in there. If you're if you're able to get the bear, 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:13.679 you know, in the back of a truck and you're 0:12:13.720 --> 0:12:17.160 taking it back to your house to process it. Yeah, 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.480 you're gonna want to keep it cool, just like anything else. Um, 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:25.559 you're gonna want to freeze it quickly. I've actually never 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.960 I don't think i've ever rendered fresh lard, like taking 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:34.600 it straight from the animal, aside from just cooking with it. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:39.360 Maybe there, Yeah, I mean like I've never like taken 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.320 unfrozen lard and and rendered it into oil that I 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:45.600 was gonna keep for a long time. So it freezes 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.040 just fine. Yeah, so you just you just freeze it. 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.760 It actually helps to freeze it. And you'll see later 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.720 when we talk about the methodology for rendering fat. Um. 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:58.440 But so you're gonna want to freeze it. I have 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:03.640 heard somebody say that bear fat can spoil and a 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:08.240 freezer frozen. I've not experienced that, And I've kept fat 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.920 frozen for at least six months before and never had 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:17.400 any problem with the freezing or or spoiling while it's frozen. Okay, 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:22.120 so that's not been an issue. Um, In the spring 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.920 and fall, you're gonna find different amounts of fat. Last year, 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.040 a year with me in Montana when we killed the 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.800 bear early, I mean this bear hadn't been out of 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:33.319 denlong killing. I made the fifth sharp Claws, Sharp Claws, 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:38.600 long guard Hair's beautiful critter. He had a fair bit 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:40.800 of fat on, I mean enough fat that if I 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.440 had gone to Montana for the sole purpose of bringing 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.200 home some some bear fat to render a couple of pints, 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.280 I could have done it. Now I was I was trimming, 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.959 I was having to be more particular, I was trimming off, 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.840 you know, like these little filets, and they would be 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:01.960 these thin, like half inch wide filets. I was primarily 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.280 getting off the rump, okay, So and I was able 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.920 to take home probably three or four or five pounds 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.920 of fat. Okay, you kill a bear in the fall, 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:16.079 you probably could a big bear in the fall, like 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:19.360 some of these that were killing around here, there would 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.080 be so much fat you'd have a hard time at all. Yeah. Honestly, 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.240 if we're just being honest about it, I mean you you, 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.480 you you could probably I mean, like that bear right 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.000 there that I killed in November, you probably could have 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.040 taken a hundred pounds of fat off of that bear, 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.600 more than you one a haul. Yeah. Well, it's not 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.720 even about hauling, it's just storing it more than you'd 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.880 want to render. I mean, a little bit of bear 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.840 greas goes a long way. Yeah, you have to. You'd 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.960 have to go in empty walmart shelves of jars. Yeah. 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.480 And more power to you, though, uh to to utilize 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:55.560 as much as the animal as possible. And I think 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.080 that's what's that's a cool part of this idea of 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:05.880 utilization of bear grease. Because Kobe people in in in 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:11.120 the United States and these United States, upwards of high 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.400 seventies of of percentage of people approve of modern hunting 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.120 if they believe that the person is using the animal 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:24.080 for food. So like, let's just say seventy plus percent 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.080 of people are okay with hon anything they believe it's 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.320 done for food. The disconnect that we have with the 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.920 bear hunters and the general populace is that people don't 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.840 immediately assume that we're eating or utilizing bears for food. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.520 So there's that disconnect that we have to that we 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.480 have to span, is that hey, yeah, we're using bear 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:46.040 for food. And here's what I say is that you actually, 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.840 we actually, as bear hunters, utilize more of that animal 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:56.120 than any other kind of big animal that we hunt. 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:00.800 Because how many deer that people kill did they tan 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:06.320 their hides? Many? Very few some, but percentage wise, I 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:10.240 mean probably like one percent of white tailda in this 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:14.480 country that are harvested are their hides tanned. Well, bear 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:19.840 I would say upwards of eighty five of bears that 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.080 are harvested their hides are tanned. And obviously that's not 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.320 for food, that's for ornamental purposes. These hides are being 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.000 kept and hung in houses and and you know, used 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.440 as just memory activators, trophies, whatever you want to call it. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.840 I don't care. That's number one. Number two the meat 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.840 we we this podcast isn't about bear meat, but man, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:46.040 bear meat is incredible. Uh, it's hard to refute that 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.960 if you've given it much of a try in more 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.720 than one place. Everybody's got some story about when they 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:55.000 had bad bear meat. Well I've got a thousand stories 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.720 of when we've had good bear meat, and people that 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:02.240 want to like it like it. Yeah. Number three, bear fat, 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:04.720 And that brings us right back to here. There's no 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.520 other animal. I mean, people aren't rendering down the elk 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.359 fat for utilization throughout the year for all these different purposes. 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:20.359 So that narrative about utilization of animals for a for 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:25.600 for commodities equating to approval from non hunters, really our 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:30.520 place is pretty strong right there. You know, um and 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:36.840 so bear fat, um, so spring and fall. Uh, you 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:38.399 can get it in the spring, but there's more in 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.639 the fall. Can you think of any other aspect of 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.840 getting the bear fat that somebody might have. You can 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:48.840 freeze it, cutting it off the rump um. There's really 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.760 not much to it other than that, I mean, it 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.159 takes longer to freeze and than meat, doesn't it. I 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.280 don't know, why would you think that, just because it's 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.560 more of an insulator, like I would think that it 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.880 would take longer to freeze solid than like regular meat. 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.439 But I don't know, I don't know. I don't know 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:09.560 if that's true or not. I mean it's possible, but yeah, 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.360 I can't think of anything. Yeah, okay, I mean it's 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.760 just let's let's talk about how to how to render 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:24.800 bear fat. Yeah, okay, So I prefer two. So rendering 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.080 just means that you're heating. You're heating it until it 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.800 turns into a liquid. Rendering as the idea that something 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:34.000 starts out as a solid and then turns into a liquid. 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:40.760 Change of state. Yeah, and so when we there's just 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.479 like in most scenarios, there there are ways to do 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.879 something that are fine, but there are also ways to 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.919 do that same thing that are way better, and we 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.159 would call that best practice. So I'm gonna tell you 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:02.240 what's best practice for rendering bare fat. But it's quite 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:06.119 a bit harder. Yeah, not that harder, much harder, but 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.320 quite a bit harder. But the other way is just 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.160 fine air quotes. Yeah, I think. I think one thing 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.720 about the difference between fat and and like taking the 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.280 muscle off or the meat is you don't have to 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.760 worry about like getting in big chunks or like keeping 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.639 like some group together. You can just like off, you know, however, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.960 you can get it off, so there's not liking you right, 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.200 a wrong way to to take it off, that's right. Yeah, 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:37.440 you could have small pieces either big pieces. Yeah. Yeah, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:44.360 that's a good point. Um, So let's start with let's 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.960 start with best practice. To me, best practice would be 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:53.200 too take a semi frozen slab of bear fat that 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.480 would be unfrozen enough that you could that you could 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.600 cut it into small like one to one and a 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:04.720 half inch cubes. The meat would be cool, and you 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.920 would grind that meat. You're not meat. You would grind 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.280 the fat, run the fat through a grinder and so 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.119 just like a meat grinder, and basically it you know, 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:20.520 it grinds up this to where the surface area of 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.720 that large fat is way more than if you cube 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:29.760 it up. And then you you heat that down and 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.920 the render is very efficient. And I guess I've got 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:34.399 to tell the story of the other way to do it. 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:36.560 The way I first started doing it was just cubing 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.120 it up into those one to one and a half 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.280 inch squares basically when and it's easiest to cut when 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:47.280 it's about half frozen. If it's totally thought out room temperature, 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.479 it's much harder to cut. But if it's about if 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:53.080 it's about half froze, man, you can just you can 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.719 cube it up, just like you're cutting fudge or something. 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:57.800 You know, it's it's fairly solid, but you can still 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:00.800 get a knife into it. Typically, what I first started 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:04.120 doing was just putting those one inch cubes down into 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.560 a heat source. And we'll talk about different heat sources 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.320 you can use, and um you could. I would pour 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:12.400 a little bit of water in there, just a little bit, 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:15.840 not much, just to keep it from that fat from 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.080 sticking to the heat, sticking to the pan, and then 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.280 you would stir these chunks and basically those chunks would 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:24.520 just begin to melt down, I mean, almost like butter, 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.280 and you would begin to see liquid form. And you know, 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.560 after uh, four or five minutes, you look down and 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.760 half of those cubes would be gone and there would 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.080 be this amber colored boiling liquid coming up around this 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.280 fat and What happens is you eventually get to the 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:45.040 point where all the fat that's gonna render is gonna render, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.080 and you still have some of the fat left and 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:52.960 little chunks down in this oil, and uh we call 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.600 those the cracklings. And what you would do then as 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:01.119 you would strain out using uh any kind multiple types 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:04.240 of strainers, but we like to use a cheese cloth 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:11.640 cheese cloth over a metal funnel metal strainer funnel type apparatus. 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.760 But that cheese cloth for sure gets all the really 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.040 fine particles because there will be there'll be a little 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:22.400 particular matter in there, um just from whatever, and you 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:26.840 you strain that out into we'd like to use Mason jars, 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:30.840 metal lid Mason jars, point jars down to what are 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:34.080 those right there? This is like the little like three 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.560 or four like quarter and I think you court point 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.120 What did I say? Did I say? One pound does 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:47.159 a point? Chucks? One pound does a One pound of 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:52.240 bare fat will make a court tort? Okay, one one 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:57.520 pound will make a court yeah yeah yeah. Um, So 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:01.960 you you run through these cloth and you put it 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.000 in these Mason jars and then you just immediately settled 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:07.320 it up while it's hot but then you have this 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:12.240 left over. Um, you have these leftover cracklings that can 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.280 be you can you can salt them and eat them. 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:17.920 I've used his dog treats before, just put them in 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.680 a ziplog bag and just kept them using as dog treats. 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:27.439 I've I've used them as snacks later. But there in 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.800 lies the inefficiency because however much fat was in that 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:35.440 little crackling, you didn't get his liquid oil when you 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:39.280 when you grind the meat, you get almost a one 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:43.800 percent efficiency. All of that bare fat turns into oil. 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:49.160 So they're in lies's best practice turning bear fat into 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:52.320 grease is if you grind it first. Yeah, we didn't 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:54.520 have much in the last one that we did out 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:58.199 here much what much anything left? Like most of it 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.080 cooked down? Yeah. Yeah, you'll strain it through that cheese 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:04.840 cloth and you'll just see small a few small, little 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:08.840 little chunks of stuff. Um, you know, and I guess 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:11.560 it's just like burnt bits of fat that that kind 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:17.680 of solidified rather than turned into oil. Um. So let's 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:20.000 talk about what kind of heating apparatus. You could do 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:22.800 this on a stove in a metal pot, just like 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:25.359 you cook with at home. Put it on low heat 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:29.160 and stir it and just let it gradually melt down. 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:33.399 We've done it in jet boils. Um. Last year we 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:35.040 did it in a jet boil, and I think we 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:40.360 rendered down probably a pint or two in like eight 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:44.040 or nine minutes. UM. We also used a turkey cooker, 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:47.440 which would be a kind of a one of these 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:52.960