Beef tallow is having its moment.
Have you noticed? It seems like EVERYONE is discovering the wonders of this ancestral ingredient: beef tallow. For cooking. For skin. For candle making and soap. It’s such a diverse use ingredient!
I have started using it both in my kitchen and in my skin care routine over the last year. No regrets! I keep finding new ways to incorporate it.
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What is beef tallow, anyway?
Beef tallow, or simply “tallow”, is the rendered fat of a bovine animal.
The word can also refer to the rendered fat of bison, elk, deer and sheep/lamb (lamb tallow, deer tallow, etc). This term is used in the same way that lard is used to describe the rendered fat of pigs.
There are 2 different types of tallow, depending on where on the animal the fat is harvested from.
Kidney Fat
The hardest, purest fat comes from around the kidneys. For this reason, it is also called the kidney fat or renal fat. This type of fat renders to a product that is completely solid at room temperature and has little to no scent. It is best used for skin care products, lip balms, salves, candles, soaps… Anything that you don’t want to melt very easily!
Trim Fat
Fat from other parts of the animal is sometimes called trim fat. Just like it sounds, this fat is trimmed from other cuts during the butcher process. The steaks and roast end up being nice and tidy and the remaining fat can be rendered. This rendered fat generally remain somewhat soft at room temperature and may retain some of a “beefy” scent. The rendered trim fat is best used as a cooking fat for savory foods. I also use it for stove top popcorn!
What does it mean to render tallow?
Rendering is the process in which impurities are removed from the fat. When initially harvested during the butchering process, other tissues may remain, such as connective tissues, lymph nodes, blood vessels and so on. Rendering isolates the fat from everything else.
HOw do you render tallow?
There are a variety of ways to render tallow. I prefer a “wet” technique, over a “dry” technique, mostly because I appreciate being able to use the slow cooker and not worry about burning my tallow in the process.
When I render my beef tallow, I start with large chunks, 3-4 cups of water and 3-4 tablespoons of salt. In the Instant Pot on the slow cooker setting, the fat is slowly cooked down and softened. Once softened, I use a utensil to break up the large chunks. My Mix n’ Chop works well for this part. An immersion blender is also helpful once the pieces are smaller.
Next, after 6-8 hours rendering on low, I use a strainer to separate the remaining pieces from the liquid. The liquid is then chilled in a large stainless steel bowl. The fat separates from the water and form a large solid disk (see photo below). Once the water is poured off, sometimes I need to scrape the bottom of the tallow disk to remove more of the impurities.
I then repeat the whole process 2-3 times with that disk of tallow until it is perfectly white and scentless.
Finally, it is ready for use!
Uses for beef tallow
- Skin Care (check our my whipped tallow balms and lip balms here!)
- Cooking oil for frying (try my Crispy Beef Tallow Potatoes)
- Cooking oil for sauté or roasting
- Cooking oil in savory baked goods
- Fat for maintaining cast iron
- Lubricant for your can opener or creaky cabinets
- Conditioner for your leather products
- Soap Making
- Candle Making
Where can you find beef tallow?
Unrendered/raw Tallow
- Local butcher: Inquire with a small local butchery. They may already have tallow for sale or be able to save it from the next harvest. However, small butchers that only do custom processing might not be able to save it for you (because the animals are not owned by the processor).
- Local beef farmer: Establish a relationship with a beef farmer in your area. When they have an animal processed, they can request to have the tallow packaged separately. Alternatively, if you yourself have a 1/4 or 1/2 of beef custom processed for your own use, make sure to specify about the tallow! This is not always an option on the cut sheet. I have written in and verbally verified my requests at more than one occasion.
Rendered Tallow
- Local beef farmer: Some direct-to-consumer beef businesses offer rendered tallow. Never hurts to ask!
- Online: Cornhusker Kitchen Beef Tallow
Hope enjoyed this introduction to beef tallow! What else would you like to know about it?
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