How to Use Tallow

Rendered beef and sheep fat is known as tallow. It is made from the hard fat of the animal generally located around the internal organs of the kidneys and liver. Tallow has been used for everything from candle making to grease for rifles and ammunition. Like its pork counterpart, lard, tallow can also be used for cooking and baking. Like lard, once tallow has been rendered from the fat, it requires no refrigeration.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tallow Saucepans and skillets Measuring cups Bird seed Candle wicks Candle molds

1. Grease the inside of cake pans or bread pans with tallow for easy removal of the finished product.

2. Replace the lard or shortening called for in a recipe with the same amount of tallow. Tallow can be used in biscuits, pie crusts and other pastries to keep the food light and fluffy.

3. Saute or fry foods in a tablespoon of tallow. Tallow can replace lard, cooking oils, shortening and butter for cooking eggs, browning meats or other frying needs.

4. Use several cups of tallow to deep fry foods to a golden brown.

5. Combine 1 cup tallow with 1 pound birdseed and place in your bird feeder. The tallow will keep the birdseed from spilling onto the ground and is good for the birds.

6. Make simple candles by greasing candle molds with tallow. Melt additional tallow in a saucepan over low heat. Place a wick in each candle mold and pour the melted tallow into the mold. Allow the molds to sit undisturbed for several days so the tallow will re-harden. You can add food coloring to the melted tallow, if desired, for colored candles.

Tips & Warnings

• Tallow has a smoke point of around 400 to 420 degrees. For best frying results, keep the temperature of the melted tallow at about 350 degrees. Tallow is made from raw fat called suet. If you cannot find tallow locally, check with your local butcher shop to see if they sell suet. Rendering the suet to tallow is not difficult and can be done in a few hours with very little equipment.

References

• Tallow, Meat Technology -- Information Sheet, Food Science Australia, Reprinted Nov. 2006
• How to Cook like Your Grandmother, by Drew Kime, Put It In Ink Publishing Co., 2nd Edition, 2009