How Did Colonial People Make Candles at First?
Colonial people, like the generations before them, made candles by first rendering animal fats into a substance called tallow. Tallow can be melted and dipped to make fat taper candles, but the resulting tapers are much softer than the wax candles found today. They also tended to smell bad, and drip excessively. Because of the softness, tallow candles tended to burn with a low light, and they didn’t last very long. Still, tallow was readily available and the candles could be made in large batches at home. During the fall, when the weather was cool enough to store these soft candles, women gathered to make enough tallow candles to last their households through the long winter months.
