For my soap project I got a 5 gallon bucket of beef fat from Maine's restaurant supply store off of route 13. They sell the stuff for 50c a pound, but that's before rendering and I was pretty curious how much tallow would be rendered and how long it would take! Well, it took me two days to cook it all down, first boiling it down in a stock pan, then frying it in a cast iron skillet to get it all... The house reeked of frying for days (kinda pleasant/unpleasant) and the stove needed a good cleaning as well, but the (pet sitted) dog and chickens loved the cracklings left over!
Quite a few of my soap making books referred to getting tallow for free from supermarket butchers (leftovers) but after asking around town no-one seemed willing to do so. Maine's was the only one willing to separate and store the fat (not just for me) for a small fee and he told me with the fda cleanliness rules anything that leaves the cutting block and hits the garbage can is therefor contaminated and can not be sold/given away ever, even for animal food or soap making. Maine's has food grade buckets they sort the beef fat into before tossing, which is extra work, and not something everyone wants to do.
From the 25 lbs of fat I got about 12 lbs of tallow, which is about a dollar a pound. Still better than pig fat at $1.75 a pound, but that's already rendered and does not leave the stove looking like a pic sty :)
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