How To Make Tallow Candles
Tallow candles are easy to make and an excellent use of homestead resources especially if you render your own beef tallow (or lard). They are made with just one ingredient, and that’s tallow, unless you want to add an essential oil or pthalate free fragrance oil, and then it’s just two ingredients. There’s nothing better than cozy candlelight on a cool fall or winter evening, especially when the candle is a clean-burning tallow candle.
A lot of information has come out over the last few years about the importance of using clean-burning candles. Have you ever noticed that as a candle burns, there is less and less wax in the candle? That is because the wax is evaporated, so to speak, into the air as it burns, and if the wax, the wick and the fragrance are made of synthetic materials like paraffin wax, then that is what you are breathing in the air of your house. Burning synthetic candles has even been linked to lung cancer. This is why it’s important to learn how to make all-natural old-fashioned candles out of tallow or beeswax. Tallow is a natural alternative to paraffin wax. Candles are also very expensive to buy, and when you figure out how easy it is to make them, you’ll never want to buy another one.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple – beef tallow candles are very easy to make
- Great gifts – there’s nothing more old-fashioned than giving a basket of homemade bread and jam, along with a tallow candle. These kinds of gifts are usually appreciated more than something like store-bought candles anyway, because it represents more time and thought that goes into the gift.
- Healthy – as I already mentioned, tallow candles have no synthetic ingredients and are clean burning, making them healthier for your family
- Old-fashioned – in the old days, before there was electricity, the most important part of any animal was the fat, not the meat. This is because they used the fat not only for cooking, but to make moisturizing lotion and as their primary source of light. Our ancestors used tallow candles to provide light and sometimes heat during the cold, dark winter months.
- Inexpensive – homemade tallow candles are very inexpensive, and in some cases completely free especially if you raise and render your own beef tallow.
- Great for emergencies – if you find yourself in a power outage for a long period of time, having some tallow or beeswax candles ready to burn can provide not only light but a little heat as well. I also like knowing that if I have a pantry full of tallow for cooking, that I could turn some of that into candles in the case of an emergency as long as I have some candle wicks stored away too. And in the case of running out of wicks, I could use 100% cotton string or twine as a make-shift wick.
- Long burn time – tallow candles will burn for a very long time
For a full tutorial on the rendering process for tallow, click here. If you don’t raise your own beef, you can usually source tallow from your local butcher.
Ingredients
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Tools
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How to Make Tallow Candles
Slowly melt rendered tallow over low heat using a small saucepan or a double boiler, being careful not to overheat the tallow.
When the tallow is melted, add any fragrance oil or essential oils as desired and stir gently.
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Secure a cotton wick to the bottom of your jar or container using a wick sticker or a glue dot.
Pour the melted tallow into the jar or container and allow it to sit out at room temperature for several hours until the liquid tallow solidifies.
Place the wick holder (wooden skewer or a clothes pin) across the top of the container. Wrap the top of the wick around the wick holder to hold it in the center of the candle jar or container.
For best results, let the candle cool for at least 24 hours before lighting.
Trim wick down to 1/4 inch.
Light and enjoy.
Store candles in a cool, dry place indefinitely.
Tips
- You can also make candles out of other rendered animal fat like lard or venison, or even from coconut oil or beeswax, using the same method.
- Add up to 5% beeswax when making tallow candles to make a harder, longer lasting tallow candle.
- It’s best to use a jar or some kind of container for tallow candles as they are too soft to be made into taper candles.
- You can also make wickless candle melts by following the same process (minus the wick) and then just placing the scented tallow in a wax melter.
FAQ
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How To Make Tallow Candles
Equipment
- 1 Saucepan or double boiler – for melting the tallow
- 1 Cotton wick or wicking material
- 1 Wick sticker or glue dot
- 1 Wick holder (wooden skewer or clothespin)
- 1 Small mason jar or container – for making the candle
Materials
- 16 oz Rendered beef tallow Grass-fed tallow is best, but unless you're making an edible tallow candle, any kind of tallow will work just fine. To learn how to render your own tallow, click here.
- Essential oils or pthalate free fragrance oils, optional
Instructions
- Slowly melt rendered tallow over low heat using a small saucepan or a double boiler, being careful not to overheat the tallow.
- When the tallow is melted, add any fragrance oil or essential oils as desired and stir gently.
- Secure a cotton wick to the bottom of your jar or container using a wick sticker or a glue dot.
- Place the wick holder (wooden skewer or a clothes pin) across the top of the container. Wrap the top of the wick around the wick holder to hold it in the center of the candle jar or container.
- Pour the melted tallow into the jar or container and allow it to sit out at room temperature for several hours until the liquid tallow becomes solidified.
- For best results, let the candle cool for at least 24 hours before lighting.
- Trim wick down to 1/4 inch.
- Light and enjoy.
- Store candles in a cool, dry place indefinitely.
