Beef Tallow

Happy National Beef Tallow Day!

I know. These “national days” are getting a little out of hand, aren’t they? My friend, Lisa, and I send the funny ones to each other and share a laugh but some of them I’ll happily celebrate (like National Chocolate Day, National Cake Day, National Ice Cream Day, etc).

Today is National Beef Tallow Day and it made me think about a podcast I did in 2021 (and was rebroadcast in 2023) with Amy Campbell on her Tennessee Farm Table Podcast (https://www.tennesseefarmtable...). And I thought I did a blog post on beef tallow but I can’t find it so here we go. . . 

First of all, what is tallow? Well, I’ll tell you. Tallow is just rendered animal fat (meaning you’ve cooked the fat and changed if from a solid stated to liquid state). Tallow has a lot of uses - cooking obviously but also skincare and overall health.

If you are thinking about using beef lard to render into tallow PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you’re using lard from a beef that has lived its ENTIRE life on grass. Not finished on grain but grass fed and grass finished. And there are a lot of confusing labels out there so ask questions to make sure the lard you are purchasing is from a grass fed and grass finished beef. If you have questions beyond that, please text, email or message me in some fashion and I’ll help you decipher. (It is a pet peeve of mine that people are not honest with their labeling, but it is not uncommon to find misleading labels here and there. That’s one reason I say you need to know where your food comes from.)

Anyhoo, lard from a grass fed and grass finished beef has 45% less polyunsaturated fat, 66% less Omega 6’s and 4 times the amount of Omega 3’s compared to grain finished beef. The lard and tallow rendered from grass fed and grass finished beef is similar in nutrients to products like coconut oil. Tallow and coconut oil are used for food production in places around the world known as Blue Zones. Blue Zones are areas where people are living healthy lives past 100 years of age. (Longevity is a passion of mine and you better believe I’ve done some research to back up anything I say about the topic.)

Tallow from grass fed and grass finished beef is also higher in vitamin A (great for skin and eye health), vitamin E (great for cell health and oxidative stress) and vitamin K (great for bone health) as well as lower phytoestrogens and lower contaminants.

So how do you get tallow from lard? It’s actually incredibly easy. I take the lard semi-frozen and cut it into chunks and then place on low in the crockpot and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lard is completely liquid and any solids are floating on the top. I skim off the solids and pour the liquid into jars and let return to room temperature and then place in the fridge or freezer as I need. In the freezer lard will keep for at least a year and several months in the fridge.

So why go this route? Why not just use Crisco? Here’s an interesting article from someone I don’t know but thought you might like to read: https://www.meghantelpner.com/.... (There are tons of other articles, too.) The history or Crisco is a little scary, to be honest. They’ve taken a product that is not meant for human consumption, whipped it into a frenzy and marketed it as the best thing since sliced bread. And we’ve bought it. In America we use Crisco as a shortcut for any lard or shortening but you won’t find Crisco on any shelf in Europe. And there’s a reason for that. You should check it out for yourself!

So, happy National Beef Tallow Day everybody! Celebrate responsibly.

Aliceson