Fat from animals

[hauteecolerider]

Now that's what I'd love to be able to do in that Farmhouse! It's so dark upstairs in the bedrooms, even in the day!

[vancopower]

On 30.3.2016 at 9:48 PM, elloco999 said:

Well, it doesn't take a scientist to make a candle out of animal fat. Even soap isn't that hard, although it would help to have some tools like a thermometer to check when the temperature of the lye water and the fat are the same.

I actually made a candle using the fat from the bacon I cooked once. Just to try it. I put it in the metal cup of a used up tea light and put a wick in made of toilet paper. It burned quite good and lasted a good time considering it was only a little bit of fat. It did make the entire house smell really strongly like bacon. That didn't make the wife happy Using rendered fat would help a great deal with this particular problem.

Here's a tip if you ever try something like this. Make sure the wick isn't hanging over the edge of the container you're using! It will seep up the fuel and leak it down the side of the container. After 15 min there was a small puddle of fat on my desk... Lesson learned.

So we established that fat can be used for candles, soap and  cleaning guns. Anything else ?   how about food preserve ? I still think that it is the best use for fat in TLD since the game lacks food preserving mechanic it will be the best use of fat all the other uses will just be redundant and overpowering, on the other hand soap will not be such a bad idea hygiene will be nice addition in TLD 

[Vhalkyrie]

The outdoors should be the best preservation method.  I'm from Colorado, and during Thanksgiving, we always keep the pumpkin pie chilled in the garage to save refrigerator space!  We can't store beer bottles or wine in the garage because it will freeze.  I know it's a game play mechanic that they intended, but the degradation of the meat out in the cold still irks me.

The uses you listed are the most practical for game use.  There were other uses for bear fat traditionally, but wouldn't necessarily translate to a game mechanic (like a balm for chapped lips).

[vancopower]

2 hours ago, Vhalkyrie said:

The outdoors should be the best preservation method.  I'm from Colorado, and during Thanksgiving, we always keep the pumpkin pie chilled in the garage to save refrigerator space!  We can't store beer bottles or wine in the garage because it will freeze.  I know it's a game play mechanic that they intended, but the degradation of the meat out in the cold still irks me.

The uses you listed are the most practical for game use.  There were other uses for bear fat traditionally, but wouldn't necessarily translate to a game mechanic (like a balm for chapped lips).

Yes cold is the best preserve, except there is a small tiny problem WOLVES!!! Do you really think that if you leave 5-6 kg of deer meat in the snow that wolves would not find it? I bet that it would not take long for the pack to arrive at your door so this is nothing to do with game play mechanics it is basic survival you don't want to make your base a wolf den right? even if you wrap it up in some paper or foil they will still smell it, the dogs can which are much more domestic creatures the wolves will smell it from miles away. 

There was something on the TV about Italians preserving meat in caves they hang it on a string of some-sorts and expose it to the air of the cave after 2 weeks I think the meat is not only preserved but tastes delicious I don't know if they put something on it probably they did I did not catch the whole thing, so yea outside air is good but wolves are bad news. On that note I am unfreezing the last pack of sausages  which we preserved from the winter anyone hungry you are welcome

[6lv1]

About preserving food outside, I agree it should be possible to put meat or food outside, then of course animals would be a problem, that's why Canadians all know how to prevent bears/animals from eating all their food when they go camping in the wilderness : they hang it to a tree! So yes, I think there should be a possibility to craft a bag in which you could put some food that we could hand to a tree.

Very simple, you can either craft a bag with skins (no matter which) or you can pick up these damn backpacks (dead people all around the game) or we could use the plastic containers. Then you attach a cuple of cured guts to it (crafting with need of the workbench), and you go outside close to your favorite tree, click on the tree (trees should definitely be clickable), and hang it. The bag should fall when wind blows much while your hanged bag is not protected from it. That's definitely what I would do if I had to survive though!

By the way, it should also be possible to climb trees to have a better view of the landscape around. Again, just a click on the tree with the question : climb tree? will take xx minutes, cost 300 Cals etc. Maybe there should be a risk of falling depending on your condition/tiredness and getting minor to serious injuries so that it's not only good to climb trees.
Climbing trees could also be a funny way to escape a wolf/bear attack. You'd have to stay as long as the wolf is still interested in you, or you could try to throw a piece of meat far away?

Should this be in a whole new topic?

 

 

[Vhalkyrie]

7 hours ago, vancopower said:

Yes cold is the best preserve, except there is a small tiny problem WOLVES!!!

Oh that's easy.  Every backpack camper has to bring Bear Canisters when camping in the Pacific Northwest.  Bear Canisters prevent animals from smelling the contents, and it's impossible for them to open.  In the PacNW and Canada, the trashcans are also bear and raccoon proof.

https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/bear-resistant-canisters.html

Actually, I'm surprised after looting all these Canadian wilderness homes, I haven't found a single bear canister or tent.  What happened to all my backpacking friends?   I guess they must have taken all their gear and headed to Alaska after the geomagnetic event!

[Dirmagnos]

17 hours ago, Vhalkyrie said:

Actually, I'm surprised after looting all these Canadian wilderness homes, I haven't found a single bear canister or tent.  What happened to all my backpacking friends?   I guess they must have taken all their gear and headed to Alaska after the geomagnetic event!

Long Dark: Revenge of the Bears.

In the Canada far far away bears finally grew tired of those friggin bear canisters, so they orchestrated an event that would force all those meatbags to grab their canisters and tents and come out in more-less ordered fashion. And then they had "an argument" with those fkers. Canisters(and tents for good measure) got collected and buried in secret bear cashes all over the world. And rest, as we say it, is history... Ohh yeah, as side effect they also destroyed human civilization and caused death count going into billions, but meh, it was worth it to get rid of all those damn bear canisters.

 

You dont need to store food outside outside(yes, its 2 outsides).

You go out, you go to nearest house, put your meat in the storage or even drop on the floor and youre golden. Even with extremely generous warmth bonuses on the inside, im yet to see a house that would have plus degrees on average day without any additional warmup.

Since its below zero and enclosed space, chances of any predator to smell meat are slim to none. And even if they will do smell it, by some miracle, then its extremely unlikely that they could get in.

[TaztyPizzaRollz]

Candles would be freaking brilliant. Getting fat from basically any animal to use it on long burning candles would be perfect

[starfighter441]

On 3/28/2016 at 6:41 PM, vancopower said:

I don't believe that fat is used for any of those things, except for cooking:

Candles are made from wax,

Torches you need something more slow burning like a rag drenched in gas and oil,

fire starter hmm how? it is not nitro,

wound treating again how? there is tons of snow and ice just use that on burns, or swelling

Cooking however mmm, one of many traditional dishes in my county is made from meat and fat on dough similar to pizza baked in stone stove and is wow beyond delicious let me see if I can find a picture:

 

Tallow Candles are made from animal fat. And blubber was and is used as fuel for cooking.

Is that a Pide?  I quite like them.

[Diamondz]

On Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Dirmagnos said:

Fat could have a lot of uses, starting with already mentioned soap and ending with usage with food and medicine(like glycerin). Hell, you can even make fuel out of it.

Very interesting point of view!

[vancopower]

19 hours ago, starfighter441 said:

Tallow Candles are made from animal fat. And blubber was and is used as fuel for cooking.

Is that a Pide?  I quite like them.

Nope, it is much more tasty it's finger licking once you pop you can not stop awesome meal. It is baked only with wood electrical stoves can not produce this, main ingredients are pork and fat  but the fat becomes like sauce and tasty, it's a master piece and only in one town they make them like that and it's not my hometown unfortunately. This here is the king of pastry. and it is eaten pure with no ketchup no other additions because you ruin the flavor. It's texture is like soft almost doughnut like almost sweet too but not and the meat is tender beyond belief not scorched or fried, but tender as ... I can not go on it's a poetry I made myself cry    IT IS PASTRMAILIA turkish word I believe

[starfighter441]

2 hours ago, vancopower said:

Nope, it is much more tasty it's finger licking once you pop you can not stop awesome meal. It is baked only with wood electrical stoves can not produce this, main ingredients are pork and fat  but the fat becomes like sauce and tasty, it's a master piece and only in one town they make them like that and it's not my hometown unfortunately. This here is the king of pastry. and it is eaten pure with no ketchup no other additions because you ruin the flavor. It's texture is like soft almost doughnut like almost sweet too but not and the meat is tender beyond belief not scorched or fried, but tender as ... I can not go on it's a poetry I made myself cry    IT IS PASTRMAILIA turkish word I believe

The shape had me thinking Pide, but it looks and sounds pretty good.

[Axe]

I've read that you can use bear grease as waterproofing. Though the smell of all that grease might attract hungry wolves at first.

[SteveP]

In the following video, they describe how to make pemmican. During the rendering process, the water is boiled out of the fat. When the Inuit use fat for a kudlik lamp, the fat is rendered by the heat of the burning flame.

To make pemmican you must dry the meat and the berries; these are then powdered by pounding with a rock or similar tool. Fat is rendered to lard and the remnants can be eaten. The lard is then mixed with the shredded dried meat and slowly cooked together along with the powdered dried berries. The results are a nutritious and very dense food that requires no refrigeration; it can keep for many years.

http://www.thelostways.com/vsl/index.php?r=7105&r=7169&hop=sevin

I made another thread to cover harvesting fat and many other resources from animals. There are a few more options on that poll; it would be nice to merge these two threads but I don't know how the polls would be merged. Interesting that the Search facility can find pemmican easily but it cannot find "fat". Maybe it's case sensitive? Oh well.

[Bjern]

Eating animal fat can keep you alive in a survival situation, aside from the other potential uses for it.