tough/hard fat

[MaximilianKohler]

I picked up a big bag of beef fat from my butcher, and I took a piece out and left it in the fridge overnight, but in the morning it still felt just as hard. The whole thing looks like a big ass piece of bacon. It has some soft fat on it that's easy to eat, but the other stuff is really tough and hard. I managed to rip off a piece and chewed on it for an hour and it got softer and white(instead of dark red) but I still only managed to eat tiny bits of it. Is there a way to make this stuff soft? Or is it not edible?

[RawZi]

    I would grate it with a parmesan grater.

[MaximilianKohler]

hmm that's a good idea, thanks

[Alan]

that stuff is connective tissue.  It isn't fat, and it isn't carbohydrate, so it only be beef protein. Your stomach acids have no trouble digesting it and passing it on to your bloodstream for use.

I myself, spit most of it out after chewing the melts-in-your-mouth fat out, as I try to restrict the amount of protein I eat.

If you have enough ambition, you can learn to trim it out of your rations, as it actually is NOT identical in appearance to true fat. It is present in the form of sheets, same as the fascia in your own mammal body.  Commercial butchers don't, simply because they are ruled by time contraints. You may not be.

[RawZi]

hmm that's a good idea, thanks

    You're welcome.  A carrot shredder should work too.

[MaximilianKohler]

You restrict your protein? Why? What do you eat?

[MaximilianKohler]

hmm I got a 4 sided cheese grater but the meat is way too hard for something like this... it'd have to be pretty heavy duty mechanical to grate this stuff...

A carrot shredder like this? http://www.acemart.com/renderImage.image?imageName=graphics/00000001/products/THGJAS022006.jpg&width=400&height=300&padding=0

The hard/dry/tough meat/fat or w/e it is sort of resembles beef jerky(though I've never eaten beef jerky) or bacon, yet most likely much tougher and dryer. Not even sure which type of store to go to to look for something that would work. And stuff I've seen on google is like from $50 to $300 so quite a big difference.