Learn how to make beef tallow from coagulated fat in beef bone broth. It's a healthy fat that is fantastic in most savory cooking.
Beef tallow is a wonderful healthy fat that should be part of a nourishing diet. It has a long shelf life when stored properly.
It can used in place of butter or any other fat in savory food preparations.
And this simple method takes the fat you already have on your beef bone broth and turns it into a delicious rendered beef fat.
What is Beef Tallow?
In short, tallow is fat that is rendered from beef or mutton. Sometimes, fat rendered from lamb can also be referred as tallow but for simplicity, tallow is generally referred to beef or mutton fat.
It's an ancestral fat that has long stood the test of time in culinary world. It's an important part of nose to tail eating, in a sustainable effort to not let any part of the animal go to waste, including fat.
Traditionally, beef tallow is made from beef suet, the solid fat trimmed from beef. It's cooked down to clarified form, getting rid of any solid pieces. When heated, beef tallow is a liquid fat but should solidify in cooler temperatures.
If you want a more comprehensive beef tallow 101, be sure to check out my guide on what is beef tallow that includes all the culinary and non-culinary uses and benefits for it. Spoiler: it's a lot!
Why you'll love this tallow
- Sustainability: If respecting the animal is of importance to you, this is a wonderful way to eat nose-to-tail.
- Zero food waste: Sure, you can source suet from local farms, or remove the thick solid fat layer that typically rises to the top of your beef bone broth and use that to avoid ditching it entirely. And it makes the broth a little leaner.
- Level of difficulty: Easy! When rendering tallow from suet, you would need more time and work. When making beef tallow from bone broth - it is much simpler!
- Health benefits: Animal fats are inherently richer in nutrients than industrial vegetable oils.
- Great for high heat cooking: Beef tallow is an ideal cooking fat at high temperatures like deep frying.
Benefits of Beef Tallow
Did you know that McDonald's cooked their french fries in beef tallow? It wasn't until 1990, when they switched to cooking their fries in 100% vegetable oil. This change came after a very well-funded, prominent business man bullied the company, suggesting that cholesterol and fat in fast food caused his heart attack.
The reality is that beef tallow is a much healthier and stable alternative to industrial seed oils like canola oil, soybean oil, and sunflower oil. (source)
All industrially processed oils use chemical solvents in their extraction process, making them highly unstable. This means that when cooked at high temperatures, they release cancer-causing free radicals.
Tallow is incredibly stable with a high smoke point of almost 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Tallow also makes the most amazingly delicious french fries. McDonald's had a good thing going for them.
Tallow is rich in fat-soluble bio-available vitamins like A, D, E, and K. Nourishing fats is an important part of a balanced diet and having different kinds of fat ensures a wide variety of health benefits.
Consuming homemade beef tallow is an easy way to incorporate these healthy fats into your diet.
💭Pro tip: Store-bought tallow can sometimes be hydrogenated with fatty acids to extend shelf life. This hydrogenation is a chemical process where hydrogen is added to achieve saturation. (source) That's why making your own beef tallow assures clean, wholesome finished product.
Ingredients
This recipe is great after making a nice batch of beef broth. All that is needed is that solid fat that accumulates on the top of the broth.
If your broth doesn't yield too much fat, you may want to wait until you have at least 2 pounds worth of beef fat.
Remove the beef fat from chilled broth and store in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer until you have enough for the rendering process.
- coagulated fat from bone broth: you will need approximately 2-3 pounds of fat.
See recipe card for specific details.
Helpful Tips
- Keep the heat low: For best flavor and to avoid strong, unpleasant aftertaste, keep the heat as low as you can get it to prevent the fat from scorching.
- Use tallow for any high-heat cooking: it is a very stable saturated fat with a high smoke point.
- Use butter knife to separate the fat from the jar.
- To extend shelf life of the tallow, it's important to not let any liquid remain in the fat. Don't put a lid on your Dutch oven as that will create condensation.
💭Make it Nutrient-Dense: Fat from grass-fed and grass-finished cattle will be higher in nutrients than conventionally grown cattle. Therefore, I highly recommend using best quality ingredients for a nourishing grass-fed beef tallow.
Step-by-Step Instructions
The complete printable recipe is below in the recipe card for your convenience.
This beef tallow recipe calls for one simple ingredient: fat from bone broth.
Step 1. Remove fat
Separate the fat from your bone broth container with a butter knife or similar tool. Pull out the large chunks of fat. You may have to cut the solid fat in half to remove all of it. Scrape off the broth from the bottom of the fat chunks.
Step 2. Transfer to pot
In a heavy bottom pot like Dutch oven or another stock pot, melt the fat over low heat. Some prefer to use a slow cooker but that is not necessary for this simple process since we're heating the fat just enough to melt all the fat particles.
💭Pro tip: Using wide-mouth jars for bone broth is helpful to remove the coagulated fat.
Step 3. Cook off any liquid
Once all the fat has melted, reduce heat to lowest heat setting and continue to cook the fat for approximately 30-40 minutes to make sure all liquid has cooked off.
Step 4. Strain fat
Carefully pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a glass jar like mason jar or another sealed container. Discard the scum on the strainer. Completely cool at room temperature before transferring to the refrigerator.
💭Pro tip: Make sure you cook your fat long enough to get rid of all residual broth from the fat. This will ensure a long shelf life.
Helpful Tools & Links
Below are some affiliate links that may be helpful to you as you make this recipe. You can find some of these items cheaper at your local store but it helps to have a link so you know what you're looking for.
- Tools: 5-quart Dutch oven, strainer, funnel, quart-size mason jar
- Storage Supplies: wide-mouth mason jars, Weck preserving jars, glass snap containers,
Serving Suggestions
Beef tallow can be used just like butter, ghee, or coconut oil. It's a saturated fat so it has a high smoke point, making it ideal for making french fries or fried chicken.
My favorite way to use it is when I start off with sauteing mirepoix (onions, carrots, celery mixture) for soup. It adds great flavor without overpowering it.
Great soups to start off with this beef tallow are this Ground Beef Vegetable Soup, Gluten-Free Nourishing Chicken Noodle Soup, or this White Chicken Chili.
You can also use this tallow in place of butter in this Pulled Pork Breakfast Skillet.
Essentially, this rendered fat is a great alternative to cooking with any fat like olive oil. It has a high smoking point making it ideal when cooking.
Storage Reheating Instructions
To store: Beef tallow can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 9 months in the refrigerator. It can be left at room temperature but I don't recommend doing so with this process. Because we're using fat from bone broth, there may inadvertently be residual broth particles that would spoil the tallow and leave unpleasant aftertaste.
Storage containers: Wide-mouth mason jars are ideal or these glass snap containers is a great way to store beef tallow.
To use: Chip off a tablespoon or so of tallow with a knife or fork and add to your pan. Use as you would butter, ghee, or coconut oil.
FAQs
Beef tallow using bone broth can last up to 9 months in the refrigerator. It is not recommended to be stored at room temperature.
In contrast to rancid vegetable oils, beef tallow can be reused after frying foods. Run it through a fine mesh sieve to remove food particles and feel free to reuse the fat.
Beef tallow can be used much like olive oil, butter, ghee, or coconut oil. Just chip a few teaspoons of tallow and add to your pan or pot.
Looking for more healthy basics? Here are some ideas:
Did you make this? Please leave a ⭐ recipe rating in the recipe card below and leave a review in the comments. Thank you!💚
Printable Recipe
How to Make Beef Tallow from Bone Broth Fat
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds coagulated fat (solid fat) from bone broth
Instructions
- Separate the fat from your bone broth container with a butter knife or similar tool. Pull out the large chunks of fat. You may have to cut the solid fat in half to remove all of it. Scrape off the broth from the bottom of the fat chunks.
- Transfer the fat to a heavy bottom pot like Dutch oven or another stock pot and melt the fat over low heat.
- Once all the fat has melted, reduce heat to the lowest heat setting and continue to cook the fat for approximately 30-40 minutes to make sure all liquid has cooked off.
- Carefully pour the fat through a fine mesh strainer into a glass jar like mason jar or another sealed container. Discard the scum on the strainer. Completely cool at room temperature before transferring to the refrigerator.
Notes
- Keep the heat low: For the best flavor and to avoid a strong, unpleasant aftertaste, keep the heat as low as you can get it to prevent the fat from scorching.
- Use tallow for any high-heat cooking: it is a very stable saturated fat with a high smoke point.
- Use a butter knife to separate the fat from the jar.
- To extend the shelf life of the tallow, it's important to not let any liquid remain in the fat. Don't put a lid on your Dutch oven as that will create condensation.
- Recipe makes approximately 1 quart or 32 ounces.
- Nutrition facts are based on beef suet.
Grace says
I've made bone broth for years and didn't use the fat. I tried this and it turned out great! Thank you for the detailed instructions.
Anya says
So glad to hear it was helpful!