Some of our favorites include: Tallow Balm and Beef Tallow Fries
The Basics
What ARE Tallow and Lard?
In simple terms, tallow is fat from cows and lard is fat from pigs. Sounds like something you’d definitely want to get your hands on, right?
Ok. Maybe those don’t immediately sound appealing to everyone, but they are both traditional fats that were commonly used in every household at one point in time.
How Do You Use Tallow and Lard?
Cooking: Since both provide so many health benefits and have a high smoke point, they are fantastic fats to cook with. They also work great for pie crusts and pastries.
Skin and Hair Care: They make excellent bases for soaps, moisturizers, shampoos and conditioners.
Candles: Make your own candles or find someone who does and enjoy a non-toxic alternative to most candles found in the store!
Seasoning Cast Iron: With their high quality and high smoke points, they are perfect for seasoning cast iron!
Conditioning and Protecting Wood and Leather: A great non-toxic option!
And So Much More! Do some research on tallow and lard and you will be amazed at all of the things you can do with them!
Step-by-Step Instructions
What You Will Need
Beef or Pig Fat
Water
Salt
Crockpot or large stock pot
Fine Mesh Strainer
Large Bowl (preferably metal or glass)
Cheesecloth
Mason Jars
1. Locate quality fat
2. Cut up the fat into small pieces
3. Render the fat. Place your cut up fat into a crockpot or large stock pot, add 4-8 cups of water and 2-3 tablespoons of salt. Heat on low for few hours until your fat is nice and soft.
4. Blend and strain. Once softened, use an immersion blender and blend until it reaches a smooth consistency. Strain it and place the strained liquid into the refrigerator or other cool place to harden. Be sure to wash the crockpot so it is ready for the next step.
5. Remove tallow/lard from bowl and move on to the purifying process. Be very aware that there is water down below that has separated from the hardened tallow at the top. Remove the top by pushing down on a side to loosen it from the bowl. If it doesn’t pop up for you to grab it, then use a utensil to help. Discard the water below and scrape off the brown sediment on the bottom of the tallow/lard. Those are the impurities that have been pulled out by the salt.
Place the hardened cake back in the crockpot/stock pot along with 4-8 cups of water and 2-3 tablespoons of salt. On low heat, bring the fat to a simmer and allow it to simmer for about an hour. Wash your bowl in preparation for the next step.
6. Strain the liquid (cheesecloth added to this step) and cool. Place some cheesecloth over your strainer and strain the liquid again, discarding the residue left in the cheesecloth, but wash and save the cheesecloth since they are reusable. Place the bowl in a cool place to allow the fat to harden again.
7. Remove and scrape impurities off of tallow/lard. Repeat the same process to remove the hardened tallow/lard from the bowl and discard the water at the bottom. Scrape off the residue at the bottom of it, leaving you with a white tallow cake.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 OR proceed to drying out your purified tallow/lard. You may need to purify it one more time in order to get all of the impurities out. If not, or once you have completed that last rendering process, cut it into chunks and loosely wrap them up to allow airflow to dry out the rest of the water from the tallow/lard. If you don’t dry them out, they may mold.
9. Storing your tallow and lard. You can either store them in the chunks, or you can melt them down and pour them into airtight containers. Mason jars are an excellent option. They will keep at room temperature for a few weeks, in the refrigerator for slightly longer storage, and in the freezer indefinitely.
Recipes
Beef Tallow Balm
How do you make homemade lotion?
Easily! This recipe is for tallow lotion, so you need beef fat to get tallow (purified beef fat). Mix olive oil with tallow over the stove, allow it to cool, add in essential oils, whip with a hand mixer, and you’re pretty much done!
How do I make tallow?
Get beef fat from the store or from your local farmer. Put it in the crockpot on Low for 6 to 8 hours; then break up the chunks throughout. The liquid is the tallow. Once most of the fat melts, strain the liquid through a cheese cloth to remove impurities. Place in the fridge to cool and become a solid. Examine the solid for impurities. If there are none, move forward with making your lotion products. If there are impurities in the liquid, repeat the crock pot process.
Section 1: Ingredients
1/2 cup melted beef tallow
2 tablespoons olive oil
20 to 50 drops of essential oil (I use lavender)
Section 2: Directions
Melt the tallow gently in a pot over low heat. Add in the olive oil, turn off the heat, and place in the fridge to cool completely.
Once cooled and solid, add in the essential oil and whip together with a handheld mixer until fluffy.
Spatula into a jar and enjoy!
Beef Tallow Fries
Section 1: Ingredients
4 to 6 potatoes, either Russet or sweet potatoes
Several cups grass fed beef tallow (you want it to be about 2 inches deep in the pan)
Sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, or Redmond Real salt
Section 2: Directions
Start heating tallow in a deep fat fryer or pan on the stove with tall sides to 350 – 360° F.
While tallow is heating, peel and cut potatoes into fry sized sticks.
Once the tallow has reached 350 – 360° F, carefully lower about a handful of potato pieces into the hot tallow.
Give the fries a stir once or twice while cooking so that they fry evenly.
Once they are golden brown, remove the fries from the hot tallow, and let them sit on the flour sack or paper towels.
Immediately season to taste with salt.
Repeat until all potato pieces are fried.
Enjoy immediately! These fries are best eaten right away.
Tallow can be reclarified and reused