Hello all,

I have a question regarding suet/beef fat. Having had rather slim holiday
funds this year, I decided to try and make soap for gift-giving. While
researching the art of soapmaking, I found that one of the key ingredients
in many soaps is tallow/beef fat. I remembered a note to tweeters not
long ago on how to make suet and realized rendering the fat is nearly the
same for soap or suet. Anyway this led me to wonder about the possible
toxic nature of not only my homemade soap but also the suet.

I seem to remember somewhere during my limited biological studies that
"undesireable" pesticides, hormones, etc. accumulate in the fatty tissue
of critters. Thus my question, is there any research discussing the
possible toxicity of beef fat? Used both in soap and suet making...
Any citations would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I live over on the east side (Pullman) and on Christmas morning a
Great Blue Heron floated into through the falling snow. That's about the
last bird I expected to see in the middle of a snow storm with 10" of snow
on the ground! Every time it would try to take a step it would sink up to
its belly--finally gave up and preened for about 15 minutes, then flew
back off toward the river...much appreciated gift from Mama Nature!

Happy Holidays, Susan Treu