I use a heavy iron pot with lid because I am not doing a great deal at a time. If I were, I would use a roaster in the oven. Just keep the pot of fat on a low flame until all the fat bits and skin are crisp and swimming in liquid fat. Strain into containers and refrigerate. Use it like any fat.

You can also do it in water. This supposedly “cleans” the fat as it renders. The fat I am rendering is scrupulously clean, so I never do that. If I just got a bunch of scraps from a butcher and didn’t know how it had been handled, I probably would.

I hope this helps you, because rendered fat is not only practical but is just delicious. Potatoes roasted in it are the very tops!

Do you think it’s for the same reason I avoided it? Messy and expensive? Actually it was the messy that bothered me the most because I have never had a self-cleaning oven. I find them at the supermarket, but my butcher also will sell them to me with a day’s notice.

Try it, you’ll like it. It’s something special to me.