3 Great Ways to Use Beef Tallow
3 Great Ways to Use Beef Tallow
Before I can show you 3 great ways to use beef tallow, I first need to explain what beef tallow is! Pastured, organic beef tallow is the product of cooking down beef fat. Therefore, when our family purchased our 1/4 of a cow, we couldn’t resist when we were asked if we wanted the bones and fat. We knew for sure that we wanted the bones for making bone broth. Making the tallow seemed like an unusual thing to do at the time, but curiosity kept me experimenting. My frugalness is always looking for ways to not waste! In addition to cooking with tallow (it has a high smoke point), there are 3 other uses for this amazing chunk of fat! Gordon Ramsey even used it to cook in a recipe online.
How to Make Beef Tallow
More info on nutrition facts, go here. These are my favorite uses:
3 Great Ways to Use Beef Tallow
Cooking with Beef Tallow
Use to cook skillet potatoes, sear steaks, or roast vegetables in place of other cooking fats. You’ll notice it does have a little different flavor than pork, so you may want to consider that before cooking with it.
Skin
Around 47% of the fatty acid composition of tallow is oleic acid. This acid is classified as a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid and mostly known as an amazing ingredient for dry or aging skin. Tallow has the ability to easily and deeply penetrate into the skin’s surface. Inside the dermis, it works to replenish lost moisture and stop additional transepidermal water loss (Source: Misumi). Other reasons to use beef tallow for your skin care regimen is in this article as well. The article is a great resource.
Salve/balm recipe, I used:
1 cup of beef tallow (prepared like above)
Same amount of Almond oil or olive oil
10-15 drops of Essential oil (I prefer lemongrass with this tallow recipe. Feel free to experiment.)
Warm the tallow slightly (about 110 degrees) to add the oil and essential oil ingredients. I use a ratio of 1:1 for tallow and the oil carrier.
Bird Suet cakes
Who doesn’t love to feed our feathered friends? (Best recipe is found here.) The link about makes their cakes with this recipe:
1 1/2 pound of beef tallow or lard (preferable organic & pastured)
birdseed mix (2 cups)
black oil sunflower seeds (2 cups)
2 cups organic whole grain flour (optional)
1 cup dried fruit or peanuts (I used dried cherries from my bounty this past summer)
I used some left over birdseed that I had from a friend. It was a wild bird mix. I used 2 cups of beef tallow with 1-1/2 cups of bird seed mixture.
I first saw this idea at an antique store I worked at. A dealer had a bunch of them in a basket for sale and people bought them up like crazy! Even though any hardware store, grocery store or Fleet Farm store may carry bird seed cakes but often they are full of chemicals that I would not want to feed to the birds.
Check out my bone broth recipe too! Stay healthy and thankful!
Shopping list
This is where I bought my tins for my moisturizer.
I bought oils I used for my salve here (I do not believe these oils are therapeutic grade). Because I am using them for external use only, I am not too concerned about that. If I was using oils in a recipe to eat, I would pick a different brand.
Other equipment:
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Before I can show you 3 great ways to use beef tallow, I first need to explain what beef tallow is! Pastured, organic beef tallow is the product of cooking down beef fat. Therefore, when our family purchased our 1/4 of a cow, we couldn’t…
Ingredients
Beef fat and bones to make tallow
Seeds for bird cakes
Essential Oils for skin moisturizer
Instructions
A. Place all of your beef fat in a large pot. Turn the burner on medium-low heat.
B. Allow the fat to simmer at this low and slow temperature for 4 hours. Stir about every 30 minutes with a wooden spatula. This is called "rendering". Do not let your fat boil or burn on the bottom. Reduce heat and stir to maintain a very light simmer.
C. Your tallow will be finished rendering when the fat covers most of the remaining pieces in the pan. Those pieces will be lightly browned and look crisp all over. You won't be able to see any more white or solid pieces of fat.
D. Turn off the heat and allow the tallow to cool slightly. Prepare a large bowl fitted with a strainer. Carefully pour the tallow from the pan through the strainer into the large bowl. The strainer will catch the larger pieces of crispy rendered beef.
E. Fit your glass jar with a funnel and insert either a piece of cheesecloth, a coffee filter, or a paper towel. Pour (carefully) the tallow from the large bowl into the funnel. This step will reduce any remaining impurities in the tallow.
F. Ready for use! Tallow is ready to use immediately, or cover with a tight fitting lid. Leftovers should store safely in your fridge for 3 months. I've kept mine in the freezer for even longer.
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