Before entering into the world of real food you most likely never heard the words beef tallow before. Lard yes, beef tallow no. That is unless you’re:
- Really interested in history.
- Went to cooking school.
- Getting on in years
.
So I thought we’d talk a little about beef tallow, what it is and how to use it.
What is Beef Tallow?
Beef tallow is to beef what lard is to pork. In other words it’s a rendered saturated fat from beef. For centuries people have been making their own lard and beef tallow at home so the process of rendering is very simple unlike solid fats commonly found in the grocery store. These shortenings are highly refined and denatured fats that have been through a process called hydrogenation. Virtually all of the fats, particularly solid fats available in the supermarket are hydrogenated. They have a shelf life of many many years, some say decades. These fats are very, very bad for you and are to be strictly avoided (More detail on this in the links below). Beef tallow is an easy replacement for these fats in your cooking.
What do I use Beef Tallow For?
Lots of things, it’s a real staple in our home! So far I haven’t had much luck acquiring non-hydrogenated lard so this is my main cooking fat. The story of lard will have to wait for another day 
. I use it at the stove for most situations where a little oil is needed. I use it for deep frying like in my beef tallow french fry recipe or for frying chicken. You could use it in place of shortening for biscuits and pastries though I generally use butter.
Where to Get Beef Tallow
There are three primary ways to get your hands on some beef tallow:
- Buy it from a local rancher/farmer.
- Buy the fat from a butcher/processor and render it yourself.
- Order it online.
I’ve opted for the last choice since my farmer doesn’t sell rendered fats. I did however receive the fat from the beef I bought this spring and plan to give a go at rendering my own using the crockpot method mentioned below. I ordered mine from US Wellness Meats. They can send it in small tubs or a big 5 gallon bucket.
Links to more on Beef Tallow
- Four reasons to use beef tallow – Real Food Forager
- How to render beef tallow – This is the crockpot method mentioned above.
- Grassfed Beef Tallow Cheap and Easy Fat Burner – Grass Fed Girl
Links to more on Hydrogenated Fats
- Why Hydrogenated Oils Should be Avoided at All Costs – Natural Health News
- Why is Hydrogenated Oil Bad for You – Livestrong
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Kathy lives just outside of Austin with her husband of 19 years Barry, youngest son Jake, two cats and about a dozen chickens. While not a Grandma yet, with two grown kids she remains hopeful. Kathy wants a world where everyone has fresh wholesome food and feels that cookin' like a granny woman is the surest way to get there.
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for a good look at a healthy old time staple. Rending your own beef fat isn’t hard, but can be smelly. We do our in the turkey fryer outside. I love having beef tallow handy. We also use it as the fat in our soap. Blessings~Elizabeth
Hey Kathy – I just rendered some lard. I got about 1.75 quarts from, I think, 5 lbs of pork fat. I’m hoping to use it for deep frying. Any idea how many times I can use it to fry with?
A old friend of mine used to keep a coffee can on her stove and all drippings went into it. Then when she wanted to fry something, or make popcorn, she’d dip some out. I never asked her how long it would keep without going rancid but I wish I had!
I had some grass-fed tallow in my fridge, in a glass jar, and it went rancid. I never thought it would, though it was a couple years old. How long have you kept tallow for?
Thanks!
I’ve kept tallow as long as a year and not refrigerated either :-O . Most everyone says to keep it cold, but I’ve not had the space in either freezer or fridge for the amount I have. I bought a 5 gallon bucket from US Wellness Meats. Now you know why I haven’t reused tallow much
I’ve only found a few folks who store at room temperature as I do. Most are freezing or refrigerating.
The tallow in the bucket does oxidize on the surface when kept at room temperature, so we simply scrape that off. I know that people used to use tallow and lard for preserving meat at room temperature, so I think Grandma generally kept hers on a shelf, and not just the coffee can on the stove, but her whole supply. I have a large sealed jar in the pantry, and it never oxidizes. We’ll use it up in a couple of months.
Now I’m dieing to see your fried chicken recipe! Is it posted on your site?
Coming up soon, so stay tuned
I’ll be posting Mrs Dulls version …
*delurks*
How far out of Austin do you live cause im in North Austin and I can get fresh rendered lard from the farmer’s market.
Anyways, i love me some beef tallow too but rendering it tends to get stinky lol.
Hi Tamara
I live in Elgin, so not that far away. Who do you buy from? I’d love to find someone local who makes lard. I tend to buy in large quantities so warn them to lookout 
Not that I need a bunch right now but I will pretty soon.
So far, I know of Peach Creek Farm (http://www.peachcreekfarm.us/) that comes to the downtown Austin market on Saturdays. Dai Due (http://daidueaustin.net/) also sells pastured rendered lard in canning jars at that market too. Also, if you need it in bulk, i found this place on localharvest.org: http://www.localharvest.org/open-kettle-rendured-leaf-lard-C8350
HTH!
Thank you Tamara! I appreciate the links … With my bucket of tallow I hadn’t looked all that hard recently. Now its getting kinda close to used up I think I’ll be branching put to using lard more
Been wanting to render tallow for some time now because I have wanted to make real french fries. Your post has inspired me to get to it. I have had tallow in my freezer for almost a year now. Gotta get er done.
Looking at the US Wellness 5 gallon nutriution information I noticed that there are 760 calories per serving, of which 770 come from fat. I gotta get me some of that!
How funny! I went to take a peek and they’ve defined a serving as about 6 tablespoons! That’s more than I would use in a dish for the whole family, except for deep frying.
Preserving meats at room temp using tallow? More info please!
I’ve not tried it myself but I’ll see if I can post a few links
I love using both tallow and lard! Right before I started the GAPS diet, I made homemade French fries in the tallow. So delicious! Now I also love mixing in tallow with cooked carrots. It gives them such a nice flavor.
If you ever render your own, I’d definitely recommend the crockpot method. I did that for both my tallow and lard and found it to be quite easy.
Hi, look very forward to the beef tallow fried chicken recipe. Any idea when it will be up?
Thanks
I’ll try to get to the top of the queue soon
.
I don’t care for tallow much, but do love lard and have a local source.
I do the “save drippings” thing with bacon fat. Basically, when one jar is about 3/4 full, I start a second jar for pouring into, and just use up the older jar. So it rotates.
I think both because it is largely saturated AND because it’s salty, it doesn’t go bad very fast. It’s handy cause it adds bacon flavor to pretty much everything, like frying eggs or cooking greens or beans, without having to thaw a pound of bacon for just a few strips.
We ate more bacon when we had chickens and I saved drippings other than what I was actively using in the fridge. I gave lots to the chickens in winter just to add calories, especially when the coop got snowed in and they couldn’t free range.
Once, I cleaned it (like rendering with water, then letting it settle into layers) and made soap from it, but that was a lot of work. A fun experiment, but not “worth it” given how cheap soap is.
I keep my 5 gallon bucket of Beef Tallow from US Wellness meats next to my deep freezer full of grass fed beef.
When I make my bean-less chili in a giant crockpot, it doesn’t taste the same unless I add about a cup of beef tallow to it. I keep trying to figure out more ways to use this stuff. I also make my own Pemmican with it too.
I am wondering…a soap recipe I am looking at calls for tallow. Can I use lard for this part? Mary
That should work ok, I think.
I’ve never cooked with it, but I use it for my hands in the winter because they can get insanely dry and chapped. It’s the only thing that really works well!
I haven’t tried it for that but I’ve heard it works great!
I had heard of beef tallow before, but never knew what it was. Thanks for the education!
And thanks for linking this up with the TALU!
Great post. I keep meaning to add tallow to my pantry, just have not gotten around to it yet.
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