Beef Tallow: How to Render It, Store It and Cook With It

My grandmother kept a coffee can of fat on the back of the stove. Every drip from every roast went in. Everything she fried came out of it. Nobody in that house had heard the word “carnivore,” but they knew good fat when they saw it.

Beef tallow is rendered beef fat. It’s solid at room temperature, mild and beefy in flavour, and it handles a hot pan beautifully. It used to be in every kitchen. Then it got pushed aside for bottled oils. It’s making a comeback, and buying it in little jars is expensive. Making it yourself is cheap, easy and deeply satisfying.

What you need

• Beef fat. Ask your butcher for suet (the hard fat from around the kidneys) or fat trim. Suet renders the cleanest, whitest, mildest tallow. Trim works fine and is often free. If you buy a beef share, ask for the fat and suet on your cut sheet. Nobody else wants it.
• A heavy pot (Dutch oven or stockpot), a slow cooker, or a roasting pan for the oven method.
• A fine-mesh strainer and cheesecloth or a coffee filter.
• Clean, dry glass jars.

How much tallow you get depends on the fat. Clean suet renders down more completely than trim with a lot of meat and connective tissue still on it.

Step by step: rendering tallow

1. Chill and chop

Cold fat is easier to cut. Put it in the freezer for 30–60 minutes until firm. Trim off any meat, blood spots or papery membrane. Then cut it into small cubes, about 1–2 cm, or run it through a meat grinder if you have one. Smaller pieces render faster and more completely.

2. Render low and slow

Pick a method:

• Stovetop: put the fat in a heavy pot with a splash of water (about ¼ cup) to stop it from scorching before it starts melting. Set it over low heat. Stir every 15–20 minutes.
• Slow cooker: add the fat and a splash of water, set to low, lid slightly ajar so moisture escapes. Stir now and then. Takes longer but needs almost no babysitting.
• Oven: spread the fat in a roasting pan or Dutch oven at about 120°C (250°F). Stir occasionally.

Keep the heat low. You want the fat to melt out gently, not fry. High heat makes it smell and taste burnt and turns it brown. The water you added will cook off.

Depending on the amount and method, it takes anywhere from 2 to 6 hours. You’ll see the fat melt into clear golden liquid while the solid bits shrink, brown and float. When the bits (called cracklings) are golden and crisp and no longer giving off much liquid, you’re done.

3. Strain

Let it cool for 10–15 minutes so it’s still liquid but not dangerously hot. Line a strainer with cheesecloth or a coffee filter and set it over a heat-proof bowl or large measuring cup. Pour the fat through. Go slow. Hot fat burns badly, so keep kids and pets well away.

Don’t throw out the cracklings. Salt them and eat them while they’re warm. Cook’s reward.

4. Jar it

Pour the strained tallow into clean, completely dry jars. Any water left in the jar can shorten its life. Let it cool to room temperature, uncovered, then put the lids on. It’ll turn from golden liquid to a creamy white solid as it sets.

Want it whiter and milder?

For tallow that’s almost neutral in flavour, there’s an old trick: wet-render it. Put the fat in a pot with enough water to cover, simmer gently until it’s melted, strain into a container, and refrigerate. The tallow sets in a solid disc on top of the water. Lift it off, scrape off any gunk on the bottom, and melt it once more to drive off any remaining water before jarring. It takes longer, but you get very clean tallow that’s ideal for baking or anything where you don’t want a beefy taste.

Storing tallow

• Make sure no water is in it. Water is what spoils fat fastest. If you see a watery layer at the bottom of a jar, re-melt and pour off the clear fat.
• Keep it cool and dark. A cupboard is OK for a jar you’ll use quickly. For anything longer, keep it in the fridge. For long-term stock, the freezer.
• Use clean utensils every time you scoop some out, so you don’t introduce bits of food or moisture.
• Trust your nose. If it smells sour, rancid, or “off,” throw it out.

How to cook with tallow

Tallow is one of the most versatile fats in the kitchen.

• Searing steak. A spoonful of tallow in a screaming-hot cast-iron pan is how I start almost every steak. It’s how we do the reverse-seared ribeye and steak and eggs.
• Frying eggs. Beefy, crispy-edged fried eggs. Hard to go back.
• Wrapping brisket. Brush butcher paper with melted tallow before wrapping a smoked brisket. Ideally, tallow rendered from that same brisket’s trimmings.
• Roasting. Toss bones, cuts or anything else you’re roasting in melted tallow.
• Shallow and deep frying. Tallow was a classic frying fat for generations. Strain it after use and it can go again.
• Seasoning cast iron. A thin layer wiped onto a warm pan after cleaning keeps it slick and rust-free.

Other uses

Tallow has a long history outside the kitchen too. People have used it to make soap and candles, and to waterproof leather boots and gear. I keep a small tin in the truck for my boots before hunting season. Works great, smells faintly like a steakhouse.

A note on the “fat” debate

You’ll hear plenty of strong opinions online about whether tallow is a health food or a health hazard. We’re not going to settle that here, and anyone who claims it’s settled is selling something. What I can tell you: it’s a traditional, stable cooking fat that’s cheap to make yourself, and it tastes great. If you have heart disease, high cholesterol or other medical concerns about dietary fat, talk to your doctor about what’s right for you.

Waste nothing

Every animal comes with fat. A carcass is lean, fat and bone, and UW–Madison Extension points out that asking for closely trimmed cuts and lean ground beef means fewer pounds of take-home product, because more fat gets trimmed away.¹ That trim is the good stuff. Rendering it into tallow is one of the easiest ways to honour the whole animal and stretch your money further.

One afternoon, a few dollars of fat, and you’ve got jars of cooking fat for months. Grandma would approve.