Homemade Tallow Candles

Did you know you can make homemade candles from virtually any solid (saturated) fat? The best part is that they are great ways to use a local & sustainable resource from your farmer-friends! Once you make Homemade Tallow Candles you’ll never want to buy them again!

Tallow has been historically used for candle and soap making, in addition to cooking. And I’ve been using tallow as my  facial cleanser and moisturizer for the past several years and I have the most amazing skin!

Every winter we receive hundreds of pounds of beef suet, kidney, liver and heart from our neighbor farmer, who helps his friend butcher beeves. The beeves they butcher are for private individuals who purchase a local, whole beef and do not want these parts. They would normally go to waste and be thrown away.

Although we do know that the beeves are locally raised and surely had access to pasture, we do not know how much of their diet was grains. Since we only eat exclusively pasture raised beef, we are not comfortable eating them. However we are ok with making the organs into our Homemade Dog Treats and we render the suet into tallow for uses other than cooking.

When recently faced with 25 pounds of beef suet, I vowed to be more proactive at using it in our home. This week I’ve made several jars of beautiful homemade candles that will make the perfect holiday gifts and next week I’ll be making my first batch of tallow soap! (BONUS – you can brag about the amazing local farmer where you got your suet from, #buylocal & #knowyourfarmer right?)

I haven’t bought a candle in years, since I’m not a fan of the toxic garbage they put in them. Did you know that the waxes and scents found in many candles are carcinogens? And even thought they may smell good, they ultimately always left me with a headache.

Homemade Tallow Candles won’t give you cancer and they can provide you with the aromatherapy of your choice!

First things first, you’ll need to CLICK HERE to learn how to Render Suet into Tallow (trust, me super easy). If you want to skip this step and buy pre-rendered tallow you can buy it HERE.

Then you’ll just need a few simple supplies (jar, wick, wick sticker and wick center) and if you want them to smell pretty some essential oils.

Prepare your jars (any recycled jar will do, we have more canning jars than we use every year so I opt to use them) by adhering the wick to the jar with a wick sticker or putty.  And line up your wick using a wick centerer.

Pour in your melted tallow and add some essential oils. Let your candles cool to solidify before trimming your wick to 1/4 inch.