Liquid gold: how to render fat and make your own tallow
Rendering your own fat at home is a great way to get the most from your meat purchases. Even better – use that tallow and lard to cook up some delicious dishes.
Remember how the McDonald fries of your youth seemed to taste so much better than the modern incarnations? Well, it’s not your imagination – they are different now to how they were back then. Back in the day, they used to fry in tallow, which made those golden strands unquestionably more delicious.
Now, I’m not here to tell you the health benefits of using tallow and lard. There are plenty of mom blogs who can tell you about oleic acids and vitamins. But here’s why I render my own lard at home and why you should, too.
1) It’s a frugal use of fat you’ve already purchased. You paid for that brisket, fat and all.
2) It’s a responsible approach to being a meat eater in terms of using as much of the animal as you can.
3) IT MAKES ALL THE STUFF YOU COOK/FRY IN IT TASTE AMAZING!
Why do you render fat?
Fat is the major vehicle of flavor in meat, so it’s not surprising that melting down pure fat makes for an incredibly tasty oil substitute. That’s pretty much what rendering is – breaking down and melting animal fats. After melting, the fat is then strained to get rid of any impurities leaving you with a paste-like substance once it cools.
What’s the difference between lard and tallow?
The difference between lard and tallow is a simple one. Both are animal fats, but lard is made from pork fat, and tallow is made from beef fat.
What happens if i don’t render fat slowly?
Lots of people will tell you it takes HOURS upon hours to properly render fat. And it does… sort of. It certainly does take some time, but there are speedier versions. My method takes about 2 hours all up. The main difference in the time it takes is in the quality of the final product.
If you use extremely low heat to melt the fat VERY slowly over the course of 6 or 8 hours, your finished fat will be whiter and smell more neutral. If you speed it up, the fat may brown during cooking. This makes the finished product yellower in color and smell a little more like the animal it came from. The slow version is somewhat purer and will last you a little longer, but even my speedy version still lasts 2-3 months in the fridge.
The only time you really need snow white fat is when you are using it for baked goods like pastry or pie crusts, or even biscuits. I use the majority of my fat as a flavor base in savory dishes, so it’s not really a problem if it has some taste to it.
What can I cook with lard or tallow?
What CAN’T you use it for? The most crispy and indulgent roast potatoes. Use it as a fat to make phenomenally flakey biscuits, fry up steak in its own fatty goodness with these beef chicharrones, even use it to make pork or duck fat caramels.
You can actually even make your own body butter using tallow (and trust me, it’s great for your skin). Or if you want to keep it simple, just use the fat in place of traditional oils when cooking.
What equipment do i need to render fat?
A deep saucepan or stock pot, a sieve or strainer, some muslin (I actually use reusable wipes you can get at the grocery store!), and a jar for storage. You can also use your instant pot or slow cooker on the low settings, but it will take quite some time. I also find that its very difficult to pour liquid-lava hot fat out of a slow cooker, which is why I prefer a saucepan.
Step by step photos – recipe instructions below:
how to render fat and make your own tallow
Ingredients
2–5 lb Beef or Pork fat
water
Instructions
- In order to have it melt more easily, cut your fat into chunks no larger than 1.5 inches.
- Place the fat into your pan, then add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan by about half an inch.
- Place the pan over a medium flame, until the water starts to boil, then turn heat down to low.
- Cook gently for 1-2 hours, stirring every so often until most of the fat has rendered. It should be a translucent yellow color. Though it may look appealing, if it starts to develop brown colors your temperature is too high.
- The fat will have silverskin and meat attached, so it will never completely render to liquid and you can expect to be left with floating crisp-looking pieces. Warning – the pork ones will taste delicious, the beef ones sort of taste like ear wax, so approach at your own peril.
- At this stage, the fat is searing hot, so be cautious when handling it. Over a heat proof bowl, set up the sieve and line it with the muslin or straining material. Carefully pour the rendered fat through the sieve, being careful to set the pan back down on a heat proof surface. Discard the muslin. I prefer to pour into a bowl first rather than pouring it straight into a jar, in case you need to strain it twice.
- After 10-15 minutes, pour the contents of the bowl into a clean jar – it will still be very hot and will heat the glass quickly. Seal and store in the refrigerator for up to three months.
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About Jess Pryles
Jess Pryles is a full fledged Hardcore Carnivore. She’s a live fire cook, author, meat specialist and Meat Science grad student. She’s also a respected authority on Texas style barbecue. Australian born and raised, she now lives in Texas.
We raise and slaughter our own beef and pork for sale to consumers. We render the pork fat into lard, and beef fat into tallow, again both for sale. I usually do this in a 22 quart roaster, mainly because I do at least 15 pounds at a time. This recipe is excellent and will make really great rendered fat. We never exceed 275° F., and you must keep it above 220° F., to cook off the water that is part of the fat on the animal. Continue to cook until the day stops bubbling. The bubbles are water vapor, and water in your lard or tallow will cause it to spoil quickly.
Thank you for this information on what temperature to heat tallow up to cook off the water from the fat. I noticed my tallow was sweating so figured it had water in it. 220 worked great and now my tallow will last longer and not go bad. Thank you!
Thank you, I’m curious why water is added at all, can’t you just cook the fat down without water so that the water doesn’t have to evaporate off?
Answered my exact question. Ty! (How to know when the water is cooked out of the rendered fat?)
Thank you for this! I made some beautiful tallow out of heart fat and only baked it at 200 it smelled amazing at first then spoiled I now know what I did wrong in the process.
Do you start with water? I have done pork fat in oven with no water. In the oven I don’t need to worry about it sticking or burning.
Very straight forward, we liked it very much.
Great recipe! Worked perfectly!!! Thanks Jess 🙂
Great tips. Tried several ways and this article is perfect
Perfect. Start to finish in a simple process, and what happens if you speed it up a bit.
Thanks
Thad
We have a small grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork farm and store. We make our own lard and tallow. Keep the temps as low as possible to have the whitest product, but a minimum of about 220°F. We will add a couple of inches of water and boil the ground up fat, which renders the fat at the lowest possible temperature, and we add water until it is all rendered. Then, we turn off the heat and let the fat set. Carefully break the fat up and remove water side up to another pan. The remaining water will have bits of bone, gristle, etc., mixed into it, and the bottom of the cold fat will also have a layer of “dirty” fat which we cut away. Then, we repeat the process with the cleaned fat and on the second go around the last remaining crud is removed. Finally, we melt the fat to 225°F and pour the fat into quart Mason jars and lid while hot. We end up with very white, very neutrally flavored lard and tallow perfect for making breads, pie crusts, and frying.
Hi, I used the slower cooker method. It took FOREVER! Nearly, 16 hours. Yeah, do not ask. First time I have no clue what/how this may turn out. Right! So, here’s the deal. The fat was rendered into a mason jar. My only problem is do I keep the lid closed while it is cooling down? If I leave the lid open will moisture stay in the fat? Simply how do I get the steam out of the oil? Would this make the oil rancid if I let the moisture stay in the jar? A lot of questions. First timer here.
Sorry, I am not an expert canner, but a canning forum may help.
Hi,
I read elsewhere that you should refrigerate the tallow until hard. Then the water will remain, and you can pour it off. The article said then heat the remaining refrigerated tallow again and repeat the process into the fridge and draining the water a couple of times. By the third or fourth time you should have almost a pure white tallow with no moisture left.
We heated beef fat/gristle from a top roast in a pan with water. After about 5hrs we had what looked like liquid fat, and leftover solids, so we called it good. Filtered it through cheese cloth and into a mason jar. The next morning, we have 3 layers: Top is a clear liquid fat (not water) middle is white solid, and the bottom looks like “beef jelly”. What do we actually have here?
Perfect and easy.
I decided to go on the carnivore diet about a year ago and as I started everyone said coconut oil was the best.
however I am allergic to coconut and decided to start rendering my own tallow after all its been done for well ever.
the way I have done it is,
as recommended smaller chunks are better but with trim there’s always meat so in a large pan in the smoker/oven (smoked was terrific) at 180°f for about 12-16 hours and just ladle off the tallow as it renders.
if you are patient enough there is no need to strain,
I have also seasoned the fat before rendering and that makes an excellent injection for brisket, tri tip, Chuck, prime rib or pretty much any beef!
How do you make your beef tallow hard at room temperature or outdoor temperatures. Trying to make suet cakes for outdoor birds.
the recipe is how to finish the smell of tallow please guide me
I get a much higher yield when I run the fat through a meat grinder. I render for 4 hours in pressure cooker with 1/2 water. After cooling in large metal bowl in fridge the solid tallow separates cleanly from the liquid. This yields a clean white product.
This article about rendering animal fat is extremely practical! It elaborately explains the methods, differences, and uses, making me eager to try it at home. Awesome!
Interesting. We decided to use Lamb Suet instead of beef for our tallow balms at bloomtallow.co.nz and we prefer the smell of the lamb.
That line about using as much of the animal as you can gave this a steadier moral center than the usual nostalgia around old-school frying fats. You make thrift and responsibility feel practical, not preachy.
This is a great reminder that some traditional cooking techniques are worth bringing back. I’ve never rendered lard at home before. Is it easier than most people might think?