Today was an interesting mix of old and new. We used an "old" sunbeam meat grinder (that we inherited) to process all the fat trimmed from an old cow (that some kind ranchers in the valley gave us). Then we spent the day melting it down on our modern gas range. (All day I was thinking about how they used to have to do things.) Had to raise and butcher the cow... had to cut the fat in bits with a knife...had to render the fat over a fire...had to make soap in order to have soap. I don't have to make soap..but I like to. And today we learned what cracklings are. They're all of the itty bits of meat that are still on the fat that sink to the bottom of the pot when you render the fat. Back in the day I'm sure they ate this but today we recycled it into dog food. :) It felt good to make so much of something, that would have been pitched, into stuff that we can use. Now we can look forward to making sweet smelling soap. That's another study in recycling..something that once was woodash (lye) and fat...combining to make new soap. It's quite an amazing process.
