I've heard about candles made of tallow being eaten in survival situations. However, they seem to have gone out of fashion now. TadGear now sell edible candles. Apparently these are long life too. Could be useful to include in a kit. I doubt they'd stand up to hot conditions though.

Hmmm....i think the phrase "in an emergency situation" sums them up. However on the Yuck-Factor scale, the prospect of chewing on a candle would seem like a feast fit for a king if the only alternative was sqeezing down bar-b-qued cockroach or goujons of slug.
I suppose I'm just fussy...
Martin

I'm thinking that that whole 'edible' thing could be taken too far if one wasn't careful!

Eatable Candle? yep. I used to do this as a trick for kids. Take a carrot and smooth it down to look like a candle. Put a walnut chunk on the small end like a wick. Stick it in a candle holder, perferably in a room with other burning candles. Then at the right time, kinda absent-mindedly, blow out the candle and begin munching on it. Good for the below 5 years set. Of course I tell them later how it is done. Could not resist adding this to our knowledgebase <giggle>

When I was in the North-South Skirmish Association, we made our own bullet lube from a bee's wax and tallow mix. Some of the guys also made candles from this same mix, more tallow = softer, more pliable, more wax = stiffer, less messy. I can remember a time or two that this concoction was used to grease a frying pan or dutch oven, and the food came out quite tasty, but I don't know if I'd try to live off of it alone for too long. The tallow would definitely be a good fat source, and the bee's wax is non-toxic, but without something else (wild greens and/or a tree rat or two) for a source of vitamins/minerals, I don't think you would put off starvation very long.

Any M.D.s out there care to give us a professional's point of view?

Troy