re: #30 wrenchwench

My relatives render anything the butcher won’t use, plus the grease from restaurants, etc. The Skunkworks. I used to have a calendar from them, in which recycling actually charted bovine cannibalism. I lost it, damn it.

Biodiesel?

At our school we slaughtered a couple cows each year, and the heavy suet was ground and melted in the kitchen. We cast large bars of brown lye soap for heavy cleaning. Our cohort was lucky—earlier generations of kids had to use it for bath soap.