Learn How to Make All Natural Tallow Candles
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Are you looking for a way to have the beautiful glow of a candle, but without all of the chemicals typically found in modern candles? Me too! Come along as we learn how to make homemade tallow candles made with natural ingredients for the first time.
What is Tallow?
Tallow is made from rendered animal fat, or the melting and clarifying of animal fat. Tallow is not only made from beef fat, but can also be made from goat, sheep and deer fat. Tallow has a variety of uses, including organic tallow-based skin care products, in high heat cooking, and in medicinal salves.
Making candles from animal fats isn’t a new thing. Early candles made this way date back to the ancient roman times when they made good use of every little bit of an animal harvest. Let’s be honest, the ancient romans didn’t run down to a big box store for candles. I have always loved the glow of a candle in my home, but once I found out about how paraffin wax and fragrances in personal care products and candles aren’t supporting our health, I worked to eliminate them from our home. You can read more about what EWG has to say about fragrances here.
These changes took time. Getting rid of these items was no problem, but finding a great solution proved to be more challenging. The more that I learned, the more difficult it was to find solutions I could trust and also be economical. So, I started making my own.
I love that these are sustainable candles, using a renewable resource and generating less waste. Another benefit is they’re economical, I can make quite a few of them for pennies since I’m using animal parts that would normally be overlooked. I had so much grassfed tallow in my freezer, I knew this would be a great way to use it as it’s a good idea to have emergency candles on hand in case there’s a power outage.
What Type of Containers Can I Use to Make Tallow Candles In?
Have fun when deciding what look you want the candles to go into. You can use a simple mason jar or find something with a bit more flare to it. Keep in mind that containers larger in diameter will need to have multiple wicks. The only thing that the container needs is to be able to handle high heat.
You can also make tallow taper candles by using a taper candle mold, but I don’t have experience with this yet.
Can I Add Fragrance to the Candles?
Yes! Essential oils aren’t necessary for the function of the candle but make for a really fun option. You can customize what scents you use and how strong they will be in your candle. I made my candles fragrance free this time but next time I plan to experiment with my favorite essential oils.
Ingredients to Make Tallow Candles
- Mason jars, or other container that can handle high heat.
- Tallow
- Cotton wick or wood wick (one per jar, unless it’s large in diameter)
- Hot glue gun
- Clothes pins or tape and pencils to hold wicks in place.
- Essential oils (optional)
There isn’t really a recipe for making these, more of a process. How much tallow needed will largely depend on how many candles you make and the size of your container. If using pint jars, they will produce a 14-16 oz candle. You will need to melt roughly 2 cups of tallow per pint candle made.
Instructions
Step 1: Prep the Jars
The first thing is to prep the mason jar, or other container of choice, by adding the wicks to the containers. Add bit of hot glue to the bottom of the wicks and attack to the base of the container so that the wick stays centered when you pour in the tallow. I used both cotton wicks and wood wicks.
To hold the cotton wick centered until the tallow hardens, use a clothes pin, or a pair of pencils to hold the wick in place.
Step 2: Melt the Tallow
If starting with hardened rendered tallow, add the tallow to a large pan and melt over medium heat. Some people use a double boiler, but I didn’t find this necessary. The tallow cleans up easily with soap and hot water.
If you have freshly rendered tallow, you will need to strain the tallow through cheese cloth to remove any small bits that remain in the tallow.
Step 3: Pour the Candles
Once the hot tallow is completely melted, pour the specified amount of tallow for that jar in, being careful to not disturb the wick. Adjust the wicks if they are off center and reposition. I used a piece of tape to gently hold the wood wick centered as the tallow solidified.
Place the jars in a spot so that the melted tallow can cool to room temperature undisturbed until solid. This will ensure that the wick doesn’t move from its centered position.
Once the tallow is solidified, trim the wick to half inch.
A Few Tips
- To minimize tunneling, burn every single burn time for a minimum of two hours.
- While rendering tallow is quite stinky, burning these candles doesn’t have a scent.
- Tallow has a shelf life of 12 months, so these candles should last quite a while before going rancid. If you want to extend the shelf life, store unused candles in the fridge until ready to use them.
- Keeping the wick trimmed and burning in draft free area will ensure there’s minimal soot build up in the candle.
Looking for other ways to use tallow? Read about how we use grassfed beef tallow to replace our facial moisturizer by making tallow balm and tallow soap.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to replace paraffin candles by making these all-natural homemade tallow candles. I’d love to hear from you, leave me a comment and let me know how making your candles went. And don’t forget to tag a picture of your candles with #LockremHomestead over on Instagram.
