What is tallow?
Tallow is rendered from suet (beef fat). Tallow is a saturated fat with a high smoke point, making it a great fat for deep frying. Traditionally, french fries were fried in beef tallow. Ya know, before restaurants decided to switch to those nasty, rancid oils… all for the sake of our health ofcourse.
What else can you do with tallow?
1. Tallow can be used in cooking as you would use coconut oil or butter. Please be aware that tallow has a beef taste. As in… I wouldn’t use it to make your favorite chocolate chip cookies. Or any sweets for that matter! Think meats and vegetables.
2. Sounds wierd, but tallow is great for your skin! I don’t use tallow on my entire face because I’m a bit self concious about smelling like a side of beef. But I use it as eye cream (and use coconut oil on the rest of my face and skin) and think it’s amazing. I’m dying to try this recipe from Holistic Kid for Tallow Body Balm. Her recipe is 3 ingredients… that’s it. The good news is that one of the ingredients is essential oil… so I won’t have to smell like a, um…, cow. She also gives some great information as to why tallow is so great for your skin. In short, it’s readily absorbed and nutrient dense.
3. Tallow can also be used to make soap and candles.
How do you render tallow?
It couldn’t be simpler. Hands on time is pretty minimal.
1. Trim suet of any visable pieces of meat or anything pink.
I know it doesn’t look very appetizing… but you’ll get over it.
2. Cut the suet into small and uniform-ish chunks.
As you can see, your chunks only need to be semi uniform.
3. Pulse in the food processor.
Like this.
4. Scrape into your crockpot (don’t fill all the way to the top), set on low and walk away for about 4- 5 hours.
5. When the tallow has rendered, there will be some little crunchy pieces that start to clump together floating on top of a sea of liquid gold. Sorry, apparently I missed a picture of this part.
6. Use cheese cloth and a mesh strainer to strain the tallow.
7. Store in glass containers either in your cupboard or the refrigerator.
Isn’t it pretty? This will turn white when it cools and solidifies.
Shared at: Fat Tuesday, Monday Mania
Nice post… french fries fried up in tallow are yummy!
Seems some conflicting info floating around. What do you think the shelf life of tallow is?
I refrigerated half of mine, but only because I had more space in my fridge than in my cabinet.
I think the minimum shelf life should be 4-6 months in the cupboard, up to a year in the fridge, and indefinitely in the freezer.
I also keep a pint in my bathroom because it is my new eye cream.
oh i AM SOOO GOING TO DO THIS
I can’t wait to try this! This is the most simple tutorial I’ve found… yay for making Real Food easy!
Awesome tutorial; thanks. My beef source never has any fat – their grass-fed/grass-finished beef is so lean (same with my pork source)… What’s your opinion on getting beef fat from an ethnic (Mexican) grocery store or any other CAFO-sourced fat?? I’ve always shied away from it since moving to real food. They even have real lard/tallow but it’s CAFO.
When I purchase a side of beef, I ask that they give me the suet as well. Have you asked for suet? I would not purchase any CAFO-sourced fat. I would either stick with butter and coconut oil or purchase tallow from US Wellness Meats or another trustworthy online source.
My suet is in the freezer, waiting for someone to show me what to do with it, Thanks. Should I let it thaw completely before working with it? Also how do you dispose of leftover grease from cooking, so as not to clog your drain or have a leaky trash bag?
It will be easier to work with if it is partially frozen. I don’t have very much leftover grease when I cook. I usually cook with a cast iron skillet, so I either just wipe it out with a paper towel or leave it in there so that the skillet is already greased for the next meal.
[...] How To Render Tallow from Real Food Freaks. Very good step by step tutorial. This way is much easier than others that I have seen. [...]
Thank you for this post! Very timely as I am ordering my first side of grass fed beef this month. I just sent an email requesting to have the suet included. Hey, I’ve already paid for it, why not use it?
Absolutely! Tallow adds extra depth to beef based soups and stews… and it’s so easy to render!