An American Culinary Federation convention I attended was presenting a Garde Manger demonstration. Garde Manger includes the skill and art of carving various foods, fats, and ice, into attractive and seemingly impossible shapes.
A chef was carving on a white block the size of a small microwave oven. It looked like paraffin wax. It was, in fact, beef tallow. I don’t remember what the final piece was. I do remember being impressed with his skill and in wonderment about his medium.
What Is Tallow?
Tallow is easy to carve since it is nearly 50% saturated fat. Saturated fats remain stable and solid at room temperature.
Tallow carves nicely, but when you slice it, it cracks into small lumps. If you’ve ever tried getting the last of a candle out of the votive, it also cracks into a similar patters. Tallow was, and still is, used to make candles. Recent uses for tallow include cosmetics and sunscreen products.
How Tallow Is Made
Tallow is the rendered fat, usually suet, of cows. Sheep fat is also rendered and called tallow and so is bison fat. Tallow is solid, like butter is solid, at room temperature, and liquid when heated, again like butter. As mentioned above, tallow is not, however, especially spreadable at room temperature.
To render tallow from beef fat, the fat is heated slowly to allow the web of protein holding the fat to break down. Heat starts a chemical reaction which breaks the protein bonds and allows the fat to become liquid and flow out of the fat cell. Fat also contains water which is removed in the form of steam. Suet melts around 120° F. To ensure the water is removed, suet is rendered at around 180° F.
The melted tallow is strained and, in some cases, jarred and sold as is.
Types of Tallow
Beef tallow is by far the most predominant source of tallow. Bison and mutton (a sheep 2 years old or more) are also sources of tallow.
Lard is sometimes called tallow. The chief distinction between lard and tallow is the animal. Cows and sheep and bison are ruminant animals, which means they are herbivores. Pigs are rather infamous for eating anything.
Deer and elk are also ruminant animals. Hunters may make tallow from either animal. Deer and elk tallow are also sold online.
Choosing the Best Tallow
If you can’t make your own tallow with suet from the butcher or grocery store, here are some tips for finding the best, partially summarized from the Folsom Point Nutrition website.
100% Grass-Fed & Finished. What the animal eats we eat. Grass is the ruminant’s preferred food, so the more it ate, the better the fat.
Regenerative. Regenerative is a popular term which has no real meaning. Small in scale producers will explain how they are regenerative farmers. Many online vendors can be contacted and may enjoy the questions.
Low-temperature rendered. High temperature rendering, higher than 200° F, can break down the fat molecules which can cause inflammation when we eat it. Heat can also degrade vitamin quality which can be one main reason to eat tallow.
Tallow can appear white to a yellow-ish hue. Any discolorings should be from the diet of the animal. If you use the tallow and notice a burnt or toasty smell, it likely was poorly rendered and should not be used.
Storing Tallow
Tallow is shelf stable, which means it does not require refrigeration. However, tallow can also oxidize. Many online stores sell tallow in pint sized jars which store nicely in the refrigerator. If you make your own tallow, portion it into pint sized jars and freeze all but one jar.
Oxidation is not a rapid process. It also happens in the cooler or the freezer, but at a much slower rate. Oxidation alters the molecular make-up of tallow which can affect its purity, degrade the vitamin D and A, and cause inflammation when consumed.
Tallow stored at room temperature is best kept in a dark cabinet away from heat sources.
Tallow’s Shelf Life
Tallow in the cabinet is good for about 12 months, according to the Fatworks FAQ site. Due to exposure to light and heat, that’s a rough estimate.
Storing tallow in the refrigerator will extend its life. In the freezer, it may last for years.
Fatworks does suggest removing cooled tallow the night before you plan to cook and let it sit on the counter overnight. Frozen, even cold, tallow cannot be easily scooped or scraped, at least not without risk of breaking the glass jar or cutting your hand. Room-temperature tallow can be spooned from the jar, easily and safely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why cook with beef tallow?
Tallow is healthy. That’s counterintuitive from much of what we’re told about fats. Tallow is low in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which is not something seed oils can claim. Tallow is also a good source of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is a healthy trans-fat.
Once upon a time, McDonald’s used tallow for their French fries. Tallow also makes excellent doughnuts and pastry for Pasties. Tallow is an excellent fat for stove-top steaks or hamburgers, too.
Where can you buy tallow?
Unlike lard, tallow is probably not in your grocery store. Perhaps boutique food shops may sell jars of tallow.
Tallow is available from major online vendors or from producers.
If you want to avoid the shipping middleman, you can make your own.
What’s tallow’s smoke point?
Tallow smokes at about 420° F. That high smoke point makes it an excellent fat for the deep fryer. It is also an expensive fat for the deep fryer.
Tallow’s smoke point is near that of canola oil.
What does beef tallow taste like?
Since tallow is not often deodorized, it tastes like beef. Describing what a flavor tastes like is a bit like describing what wet water feels like.
Tallow has a subtle (to me) beef flavor that is a compliment to the dishes I cook with it.
Cooks new to tallow may find the flavor profiles out of the expected, since most of us expect our cooking oils to have a neutral flavor. Some oils, extra virgin olive oil is a good example, offer their own flavor to the foods that are cooked in it. Tallow would be excellent for onions in French Onion soup and a neutral fat, lard perhaps, would be well-suited to sautèed sweet corn and thyme.
Can beef tallow replace butter?
Tallow can replace butter, but maybe not for every use. Pan-fried or sautéed vegetables sound great. Seasoned tallow cooks may find the flavor of popcorn enhanced by cooking it in tallow. Probably nobody prefers buttercream icing to be made from tallow.
Pick your compatibility, or contrast. Beef-flavored Sole Meunière might work.
What to do with beef tallow?
Yorkshire pudding is nothing without beef fat. The more fat the better, it seems for that dish.
The best hotdogs ever are made with tallow.
Anywhere vegetable oil would be used for cooking, tallow can be used instead. Some pastry dishes and meat pies would be made better for animal fat in the crust or dough.
Old-timey dishes such as confit or rillettes, commonly made with duck fat or lard, can also be made with tallow. Also, try poaching planks of Idaho potato in tallow till soft then griddling them. You can grill them, but mind the flare-ups.
Homesteading folks are finding tallow replaces commercial fats and waxes for cosmetics and sunscreens since tallow has fatty acids similar to human skin which allows tallow to be easily absorbed. Commercial tallow does undergo purification which changes it to a smooth-ish texture.
Candle and soap making is another return to traditional uses for animal fats and ensuring nothing goes to waste.