How to Make Beef Tallow

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Learn how to make beef tallow!  It’s extremely easy, stores for several months, and is super versatile.  Use it for high heat cooking, stir-frying, sauteing, deep frying, roasting and for baking.  It’s also used to season cast iron and for making soaps, lotions, candles, shaving cream and leather conditioners!

For the absolute best tasting French fries and battered fried fish, use your homemade beef tallow to make the BEST British Fish and Chips!

I’ve been rendering my own beef tallow and lard for years.  When it comes to flaky crusts, crispy potatoes, and flavorful fries, nothing else compares.  In fact, whenever I make my oven-roasted potatoes, a favorite in our home, my son always tells me to make sure I use the “good stuff.”

What is Beef Tallow?

Beef tallow is rendered beef fat that can come from various fat sources from the cow, for example back fat or kidney fat (also called leaf fat, it’s the fat that surrounds the kidneys of the cow).  Beef tallow that is made from back fat, as opposed to kidney fat, has a stronger flavor and is used more for savory applications like frying French fries and as a general substitute for oil or butter.  Beef tallow made from kidney fat (the fat that surrounds the kidneys, also called leaf fat) has a milder flavor and so is better suited for sweet applications like pies, cakes, etc.  When tallow is rendered it is a liquid and as it cools it hardens.  Properly stored in a cool place it will keep for a few months.

What is Lard?  

Lard is a completely different animal (no pun intended!).  Lard is rendered fat specifically from pigs.  Check out our tutorial on How to Make Lard.

How Long Does Tallow Keep?

Rendered properly so that the excess moisture is evaporated (that’s why it’s key to leaving the lid of the slow cooker open while it renders), strained so that it’s free from impurities, and stored properly (in a cool place), beef tallow will keep for a few months.  Stored in the fridge it will keep longer than stored at room temperature.  It can also be frozen for several months.

It can be stored in glass jars with lids or poured into a container to harden and then inverted and sliced into cubes, wrapped, and stored.

How to Use Beef Tallow

Beef tallow is extremely versatile can be used to make candles, soaps, skin products, and for cooking and baking.  Here are a few ways you can incorporate it into regular routine:

High Heat Cooking

Beef tallow has a high smoke point making it perfect for things like searing steaks to get that perfect crust, stir-frying vegetables, frying hash browns and pan-fried potatoes, and general frying and sautéing.  It’s also perfect for deep frying everything from French Fries, traditional Fish and Chips, to doughnuts (for sweet applications use the milder kidney fat).  Julia Child famously commented in the mid’90’s that ever since McDonald’s stopped frying their fries in tallow, they were “limp” and flavorless.  I agree that tallow makes the best fries!  It’s also perfect for oven-roasted potatoes, Baked Potato Wedges, and for roasting veggies like carrots, parsnips and Brussels sprouts.

For another cooking application, swap out butter for beef tallow to make a flavorful roux for making your gravies and sauces.

Baking

Tallow can be used to make pastry crusts for such things as pot pies and Cornish Pasties.  You can also use it to make perfectly flaky pie crusts.  Simply swap out the lard for the tallow to make Lard Pie Crust (again, for sweet applications use the kidney fat).  Whenever a recipe calls for vegetable shortening or butter, you can use tallow.

Other Uses

You can use tallow for seasoning cast iron cookware.  Seasoning requires the use of oil with a high smoke point, making tallow a great choice.  Tallow can also be used for conditioning wooden cutting boards and utensils and even leather goods.  Tallow has also made a comeback as a central ingredient in handmade soaps, lotions, shaving creams.

What You’ll Need to Make Beef Tallow

Making beef tallow is extremely easy and requires minimal equipment.  You likely already have everything you need to make it except for the cheesecloth.

• A slow cooker, minimum size 4-5 quarts (bigger is fine).  I don’t recommend using a stock pot on the stovetop, it’s too easy to burn the fat.  or a large stock pot.  A slow cooker easy to set to LOW and it maintains it at a steady low simmer.
• Ultra fine cotton cheesecloth (ultra fine is essential to ensure the smallest impurities are strained out to prevent the tallow from developing mold).
• Fine mesh strainer 
• Sealable glass jars such as wide-mouth mason jars (wide mouth makes it easier to access).

Pro Tips

• Keep your fat frozen until you’re ready to render it.  Fat is extremely perishable and will start developing mold within two days of being thawed, even when stored in the fridge.
• Chop the fat while it is still semi-frozen.  This makes it MUCH easier.  The finer you chop the fat, the quicker it will render and the more tallow it will yield.
• Use a slow cooker instead of a stock pot.  It’s very easy to burn the fat in a pot on the stove top.  Using a slow cooker set to LOW keeps the fat at low, steady simmer.
• Don’t overcook the tallow or it will develop a borderline burnt flavor.  Stop rendering when about half of the pieces of fat are brown.
• While tallow can be store at room temperature, it will keep much longer in the fridge and even longer in the freezer.

How to Make Beef Tallow

Let’s get started!

Chop the fat as finely as you realistically can.  Tip:  It is MUCH easier to chop when it is semi-frozen.  And the finer it is, the more yield you will get.

Place the chopped fat in a slow cooker on LOW.   Leave the lid OFF to allow excess moisture to evaporate. 

Let the fat slowly simmer, never allowing it to boil, for roughly 6-8 hours, depending on how much fat you’re rendering it.

The fat will begin to turn brown and turn to liquid.  Give it an occasional stir to avoid any bits getting stuck to the sides or bottom and starting to burn.

It’s done rendering when at least half of the pieces are brown, are submerged under liquid fat, and the liquid fat is clear.  Avoid over-cooking the fat or the tallow will end up having a strong, borderline burnt flavor.

Line a fine mesh strainer with ultra fine cotton cheesecloth (essential for straining out impurities so your tallow doesn’t develop mold) and place the strainer on top of a large glass bowl.   Ladle or pour the tallow through the cheesecloth.

Let it sit until the tallow has drained through.  Once cool enough to handle, you can squeeze the cheesecloth to get any remaining tallow out.

Initially the color will be a yellow but it will lighten as it cools.  If the color is orange or darker, it means your tallow is overcooked/burnt.

Pour the liquid tallow into whatever glass jars you plan on storing the tallow in.  Wide mouth jars are easier to access.  Allow the tallow to cool completely before screwing the lids on the jars.

The color of the tallow will lighten as it cools and the color can vary from anything from yellow to almost white.  Tallow made from kidney fat is usually the lightest in color.  The breed of cow and also whether it’s a dairy or meat cow, can also impact the color.  One is not better than the other.

Store in a cool, dark place.   It will keep longer in the fridge, at least 3 months.  It can be frozen even longer.

Once fully cooled and chilled the tallow will be quite hard and not a soft, scoopable consistency like lard.