How to Render Tallow

How to Render Tallow from Beef Fat

Making your own cooking fat from beef fat or beef suet is super easy. You really don’t need any special equipment, but there are some tools that can make it easier. Learn how to render tallow from beef fat with our YouTube video. 

How to Render Tallow

How to Render Tallow in 6 Easy Steps

Tallow is a type of rendered beef fat that has a variety of culinary and household uses. Here’s a simple method on how to render tallow at home:

Materials:

  • Beef fat or suet
  • Sharp knife or meat grinder
  • Large pot 
  • Strainer with fine mesh
  • Container for storing the rendered tallow (jar or bucket)

How to Render Tallow Instructions:

  1. Cut the beef fat into small pieces using a sharp knife or a meat grinder. Make sure to remove any meat or connective tissue from the fat. We love using the Kitchen Aid meat grinder attachment for this step! 

  2. Heat the pot over low heat. Add the beef fat pieces to the pot and let them melt slowly. You can also do this in a slow cooker, if you’d rather. 

  3. Stir the beef fat occasionally as it melts to ensure even heating and prevent burning. We cook on propane, so we have to be very careful to keep the heat low (around 1-3 on the dial). 

  4. Once all the beef fat has melted, allow it to cook for a few more hours until the solids at the bottom of the pot turn brown and crisp. This is known as “cracklings.” You can eat these, and they are delicious! 

  5. Strain the tallow through a fine strainer into a container. You can store in glass jars or a 5 gallon bucket, even an ice cream bucket. If you don’t want to eat the cracklins, you can feed them to your chickens or pigs! 

  6. Let the tallow cool to room temperature, then transfer it to the refrigerator or freezer for storage. Tallow can be stored in the refrigerator for several months, or in the freezer for up to a year. You can also store it on the counter, if you keep a cooler kitchen, or in your extended pantry, again if you keep a cooler pantry. 

Watch our YouTube Video on How to Render Tallow

What are the Benefits of Tallow?

After you learn how to render tallow, what can you use it for? 

Beef tallow has many uses. We use it for cooking and for making soap. We’ve also made candles for ourselves, which make great emergency candles! 

Cooking

You can cook with beef tallow, as it has a high smoke point, making it ideal for frying, sautéing, and roasting. It can also be used as a substitute for butter or other oils in baked goods.

We love using tallow in baking when we don’t have butter on hand. Lard made from pig fat is also great for this! 

You can also add beef tallow to soups, stews, and sauces to enhance their flavor and richness.

Skincare and Soap

Using beef tallow for skincare is the main reason that we render beef tallow. It can be used as a natural moisturizer for the skin, and it’s amazing in soap. It contains high levels of vitamin A and E, which can help soothe and heal dry, irritated skin.

We have many customers who enjoy our goat milk soap and have found soothing properties for their acne and eczema. 

Beef tallow is a common ingredient in traditional soap making. It adds hardness and lather to soap, and can also help to moisturize the skin.

Our soap lathers so well that you won’t notice that you are missing all the fake, chemical filled ingredients in store bought soap. 

Candles

Did you know that you can make your own candles from beef tallow? Beef tallow can be used as a base for making candles. It has a long burning time and can be scented with essential oils. We usually make these candles with just beef tallow, a wick, and a jar. So simple!

Leather Working

Leather workers also use beef tallow to soften and condition leather.

Overall, beef tallow is a versatile and useful ingredient that can be used in many different ways. Our ancestors really knew what they were doing when they used every part of every animal!

After you Learn How to Render Beef Tallow, Learn How to Render Pig Fat into Lard, too!

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