[Sca-cooks] tallow for lighting

[Stefan li Rous]

Pyro commented:
> Tallow dips are made just like those colonial(am.) hand-dipped candles,
> but you use tallow (beef fat) instead of wax or paraffin (petroleum
> substitute for wax).
> "lamps" are a stone or ceramic shallow dish, with wick/s (one or more) laid
> from center to edge and tallow/fat poured over. once lit the wick will melt
> enough of he fat to move up the wick and provide light or heat- these tend
> to be rather smoky and smelly, no doubt why wax candles were preferred. but
> sooooo authentic!
Have you actually done this? If so, what fat were you using? From what I've

seen, both in period and modern writings, pork fat is not recommended for

this because it does smoke and smell badly. Sheep or lamb fat seems to have

been the preferred fat.

I can't remember whether tallow is just the rendered fat, or if there is

more processing that is needed.

For the folks wanting to try tallow candles, you might want to look at
the candles-msg file in the Florilegium as well as the various soap making files.

Your description of your lamps sounds very similar to these mentioned in

this article, but with a more solid fuel:
flt-wick-lmps-art (14K)  2/24/97    "Experiments with domestic lighting" by
                                       Gordon Reeder. (float-wick lamps)
http://www.florilegium.org/files/HOME/flt-wick-lmps-art.html

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****