Homemade Tallow Candles.
It is not too late to make candles as Christmas gifts this year.
If you want to make something and don’t have a lot of time, money or ideas – this is it!
You can make these with your own beef tallow, or pick up some beeswax. Either way your candles will be organic, non-toxic, homemade and beautiful.
You will need:
- Tallow or beeswax
- Jars
- Wicks
- Hot glue & gun (optional)
- Essential Oils (optional)
I rendered my own beef fat not too long ago. Go here to see how to do that.
When you raise your own food you will get random cuts of meat (and other meat-like parts) back from the butcher that you have probably never seen at a grocery store. You will have a freezer filled with animal organs, parcels, and pieces that you have never even thought about eating.
Whether you take home your entire animal or leave half of it there, it will cost you the exact same amount to have it processed. At least, that’s how it works at our processor. As our livestock exits our trailer and steps into the holding corral at the facility they must walk across a scale. This scale tells everyone what the animal weighs, “on the hoof.”
That number times their fee is what we pay. Slicing, dicing, chopping, grinding, patties, stakes, packaging, shrink wrapping, flash freezing – all included. No extra charge.
Whether you take home the tongue or not doesn’t matter – same price.
Our steers are raised on “milk and meadow.” This means they are healthy. They are well-fed. They are fat. To see him go here.
I had an ice-burg of fat which I turned into beautiful white tallow. I wasn’t ready to do anyting with it in October so I froze it.
This week I got it back out of hibernation so it could become Christmas Tallow Candles. Squeal!
Isn’t homesteading fun?!!
The coolest part of this project was:
- It was fast
- It was almost free
- My 15 year old son helped
So many of the kitchen projects around here are just a little on the “girly” side. My son usually stays out of the way. BUT, not candle making. He was my right hand. He was all over it. He made candles. Candles are for dudes!
Especially these.
No dyes.
No artificial colors.
No artificial flavors.
No artificial fragrances.
No toxins.
No pink, purple, lace, frills, bows, ribbons or anything girly.
All natural, all organic, non-gmo, farm raised, real-deal, beef-tallow candles.
I busted the tallow out of the freezer.
And put it into a made up double boiler. I just put a big pan into a bigger pan. The lower pan is filled 1/2 way with water.
Let this simmer for a few minutes & the tallow will melt. Once it is all melted, remove from heat. We don’t want the tallow to be too hot or our jars will burst when we fill them. Yes, I have bursted jars. Go me!
Aren’t these jars cute! I picked them up at Walmart. I think they will make perfect tallow candles.
I bought the wicks at a craft store. In order to keep my wicks from moving around, I hot glued the ends into the bottom of the mason jars.
Pour the melted tallow into the jars.
NOTE: Take your time while filling jars. If some tallow drips on the sides of the jars it will look a little sloppy. It is invisible while hot, but once it cools the bright white tallow will show. Any accidental drips will turn into white lines down the sides of your jars.
This is when you can add some essential oils if you would like the candles to be scented. You have a couple of options: scent the entire batch or scent each jar.
We wanted all the candles to be the same fragrance, so we added the oil to the giant batch. If you want to individualize your smells or leave some non-scented, just add a few drops of essential oils to each jar as desired.
We added some pine essential oil to these candles to give them a ‘Christmas-y’ flare (since they are going to be Christmas Gifts).
You can use any oils you love. You could even use medicinal oils, like eucalyptus, to turn these candles into soothing, healing treatments. I have a son who had childhood asthma. He still struggles sometimes depending on the weather. Eucalyptus oil has always been a wonderful remedy to open up his airways. Eucalyptus oil can be used on skin, in baths, in a diffuser or in a candle.
After all the jars have wicks and tallow all you have to do is allow the tallow to cool.
Our wicks wanted to lean to the side so we used some pencils to hold them straight as the tallow cooled.
Trim your wicks and screw on the lids for easy storage.
Beautiful!
The only cost I have in these candles are the jars, wicks and essential oils. These make great homemade gifts and won’t cost you much to give.
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Candi
