I had a fascinating conversation with Bryan Bracewell of Southside Market and Barbecue at Brisket Camp this past year. Bryan was one of the speakers. His family’s Southside Market and Barbecue has been in business for 125 years.
We were in a lecture outdoors assembled under a tent on a rainy afternoon. There was a beautiful collection of of custom built pits spewing smoke in every direction. We were discussing pit design, wood, meat, seasoning, heat control, timing and air draft. I’m a curious observer and when I saw a grease spout at the bottom of a smoking pit dripping fat from the briskets, I asked Bryan “what do you do with all that grease?” His immediate response was “we sell it.” He said he was paid a $10,000 signing bonus from a biodiesel company. I love this idea! Here’s the scoop in pictures and words from Bryan:
“See the spout on the left side coming out of the bottom of our Oyler BBQ Pit. The grease collects in the bottom of the pit and is drained out of this spout, collected, and sold.”
“This is what a typical grease container looks like. The grease service stops by every 2 weeks and empties it and pays us. We also have a container built into the ground (under the slab) that collects all the grease from our built in BBQ pits. It’s basically a 500 gallon milk container that gets pumped every 2 weeks as well.”
“Our grease service guy.”
Tom Abney, a biodiesel fuel broker, initiated a deal with Bryan’s Southside Market and Barbecue for the signing bonus in return for a commitment to sell their rendered fat exclusively to one company. Bryan has been very generous in sharing information about how this program works. It also put me on a mission to search on the web for more information on “Animal Fats for Biodiesel Production.” This is just one of the many sites where you can read about this topic. But be warned – it’s a lot of stuff to read.
The bottom line – rendered animal fat is a sustainable product. Biodiesel made from animal fat means cleaner and more efficient burning in diesel engines. There is a steady supply of animal fat and the availability of tallow is relatively constant. http://www.nationalrenderers.org/environmental/biofuels/
“Because of their chemical composition, fats release concentrated amounts of energy when burned. This energy can be used as a biofuel. Current usage of rendered fats in the biofuels is estimated at 3 – 8% of the approximate 11 billion pound annual production of rendered fats (yielding 43 million to 116 million gallons of biodiesel). Existing biodiesel technology yields a gallon of fuel for each 7.6 pounds of fat.”
Somehow this makes me feel good. First, 50% of a “packers cut” is being recycled and, second, the hardworking pit operators are getting a few bucks for selling off the grease from the tastiest briskets in the country. Now we’re talking! Just eat more brisket and save the planet!
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