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4.66 from 41 votes

Beef Tallow

Learn the craft of rendering beef tallow.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time7 hours
Total Time7 hours 20 minutes
Course: homemade diy
Cuisine: American
Keyword: beef tallow
Author: Karrie

Ingredients

  • Beef Fat preferably from a grass-fed cow and try to get the fat that is from right around the kidneys

Instructions

  • Use food processor to grate it up or if you don’t have a food processor just use a knife and cut the fat into as small of chunks as you can.
  • If there are any pieces of meat you can cut out do it at this stage too.
  • Put beef fat into 5 qt. Dutch Oven, fill pan to the top.
  • With the heat on low put the lid on the beef tallow fat and let it start slowly cooking.
  • After 2 hours take a wooden spoon and mix the beef tallow fat around a bit. Some use a potato masher and squish it a bit too to help the process along.
  • Don’t cook this fast because if it burns it will ruin it all.
  • Stir again at about 4 hours.
  • After about 6-7 hours it will be done. You can tell by all the little browned bits cooked till crispy.
  • Next drain all the liquid oil and strain out the cracklin’s. (Cracklins are basically fried bits of meat and gristle)
  • Use a fine mesh strainer, a paper towel, cheese cloth or a flour sack towel and line the towel over a strainer, which should sit over a large bowl.
  • Pour all the hot oil in and strain it. It should be a nice yellow color.
  • Pour into airtight containers and allow to cool overnight.
  • Store it in an air-tight container to avoid oxidization it can be at room temperature for up to a year or longer. You can store it in the fridge as it will last even longer there. OR you can pour your tallow fat into ice cube trays and put the frozen cubes into a freezer bag to freeze.