Rendering lard is the process by which one transforms glops of animal fat (which come from the animal intertwined with other animal tissue) into pure fat which is not only more uniform, but also able to withstand storage for a lot longer.   The process is surprisingly simple.

Lard is the fat from pigs, and tallow most often refers to beef or cow fat, although I've also rendered lots of fat from my goats, and find it to be surprisingly tasty as well.

Isn't animal fat unhealthy?

Eating as much as we can from our farm and foraged food does allow for sunflower oil and pecan oil, but animal fat is also available and relatively easy to procure.  Processed food contains a lot of hydrogenated fats, which are less healthy than animal fat from grass-fed or pastured animals.  Also, prior to this year, we ate a lot of butter.  A LOT.  From the store (from grain-fed cattle).  Maybe I'm rationalizing my current dietary choices, but now that I'm eating lard and tallow on the regular (daily), I'm not weary about eating it.  Grain-fed butter is totally out of my diet, as is all hydrogenated fat, so if I fry my eggs in lard (which is delicious, by the way) or put tallow in a pie crust instead of butter, my dietitian self is unconcerned.  If you're choosing to buy olive oil or other healthy oils from the store - and there is no reason you shouldn't - then I'm not advocating switching to lard.  But if you're making a choice between homemade cookies with tallow or store-bought; well, I'd go for the former.

Aside from my personal biases, scientific studies confirm that the fatty acid profile of food products from grass-fed animals is much healthier - lower in the bad fats and higher in the healthy ones.  See for yourself:

A review of fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef - PMC (nih.gov)

And last, there is the health of your body, and also the health of the planet.  If I can get fat from my farm and not have other people raise it and transport it thousands of miles, then I feel even better about my lard-laced eggs.  And no palm trees were destroyed in the process.  Okay, I'm now off of my soap box.

Umm, how do you get fat from an animal?

Well, there are options

1. When you butcher an animal, as you are skinning and removing the internal organs, cut away and keep any large portions of fat that you encounter.  There is often a lot of fat attached to the skin, especially on the back; and also around the organs.  Use the fat that same day, or refrigerate for use in the next few days, or freeze for later.  I prefer to refrigerate and then place cold/hard fat in a blender to break up into very small pieces.  This speeds up rendering significantly.
2. If you choose to scald a pig so the hair can be scraped away, then you want to skin the animal in a manner so that you keep as much fat attached to the skin as you can.  This makes the tastiest lard in my opinion.  Cut into small chunks to aid in quicker and more efficient rendering.
3. If you don't butcher your own animals, have the butcher save your beef kidneys
4. If you don't raise animals, yet you still want to render fat (maybe for soap), try contacting your local animal processor.  We are fortunate to have both cattle and pig butchers within a 45 minute drive from us.  At the time of writing this, one can purchase a beef kidney for about $15, which will yield several pounds of tallow.  The kidney will come frozen.  Thaw just until you can cut through the kidney.

More on rendering lard

If you use the kidney fat, you get a better yield.  There is less connective tissue mixed in with this fat, and the quality of the fat rendered is also superior.

How to render pork lard, beef tallow and other animal fat

The process is nearly the same whether the fat is from your own animal or a purchased kidney, and whether from a pig, cow or goat.

Once you have gathered the fat:

1. Make sure the fat is cold.  If the fat starts to melt, it gets too messy to work with well.  Beef fat stays solid at warmer temperatures, and pig fat melts the easiest and should be extra cold upon starting out.
2. Chop the fat into small chunks.  With beef and goat fat, I've grown to prefer putting larger chunks into a blender to yield even smaller chunks.  This results in less sinewy chunks that don't melt down.  You'll find when chopping the fat that it is wrapped and wrapped again in a saran-wrap like casing.  This is the fascia, and is normal, but needs to be chopped finely to allow for better melting of all the fat.  It will separate out better in the blender.  But beware, it can also bind up your blender.  It's best to pulse small batches.
3. Place the fat in a pot (I prefer a crock-pot) and heat on LOW for hours.   You want the fat to melt and any water to evaporate.  I start my crock pot on low, and reduce to warm once most of the fat is liquid.
4. Cook for hours.  How many is determined by how much fat you are rendering.  At least six.  More time won't hurt anything as long as you don't over-cook (burn) your fat.  This shouldn't be a problem in a crock pot.
5. Strain.  This is messy.  Strain when the fat is liquid.  There will be solid chunks of connective tissue that do not melt which need to be filtered out.  I line a metal colander with an old (clean) pillowcase or similar thin fabric.  Pour the fat through the fabric-lined colander and collect the fat.  Next, wearing gloves to protect yourself from the heat, gather the chunks in the fabric, and squeeze out any additional fat that you can.
6. Pour hot fat into a container to cool.  Store in quart jars or in chunks in baggies in the fridge or freezer.  The fat should be shelf-stable if you successfully removed all moisture.  If you're unsure, and you have room, keep any extra in cold storage.  I've kept quarts of goat tallow on the counter for months.   Beef fat being the hardest seems to do best at room temperature.   I take lard out of cold storage only a jar at a time as it is soft at room temperature!

Since fat from a disembodied beef kidney is the least graphic and gory, here is the process in pictures starting with one such fat-encased kidney.  Enjoy :)

More on finely chopping the fat for easier rendering of lard here:

TaDa!