My wife is a soap maker. she has rendered deer and bear, and beef fat for soaps. she uses a crock pot. (actually several) She doesn't use water but it renders quicker when the chunks of fat are in the hot liquid. bear fat made great soap, but then again so did the deer and Beef fat. the animal fat makes for a hard bar that lasts a long time. I think she had 5 large croc pots going in the garage at one time for a few weeks rendering fat... Smelled awesome in the garage.