Beef tallow is a wonderful ingredient for handmade soap. It makes a hard, longlasting soap, that is a gentle cleanser. And on top of all of that, it is usually fairly cheap and easy to find locally. While you can buy tallow (check out your supermarket near the butter usually), it often contains other additives and it is far cheaper to render it yourself. Tallow is just rendered beef fat The best fat to use is the kidney fat, as it is usually hard and white, so it makes a nice white tallow. We have used the fat from beasts that we have had butchered, and I've also bought fat from butchers and abattoirs in our area, if you ask around, its usually available somewhere. It doesn't take much effort to render fat into tallow, and the best method I have found is a slow cooker (or crock pot). Basically all you're doing is melting it and straining out all the bits of sinew and stuff that isn't fat so you have a nice pure tallow. ...