How To Make Beef Tallow: Rendering Beef Fat

Learn how to render beef fat at home to make tallow for cooking, lotion, and soap. Easy steps for versatile, homemade tallow!

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy

When I first discovered all the possibilities for tallow – from cooking to beauty and skin care – my first question was “How do I make beef tallow?” After years of rendering tallow for my family and using it throughout our home I am thoroughly convinced it is one of the most amazing products and you too will fall in love with tallow.

Why You’ll Love This

Ease – Rendering tallow is quite simple and in this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to render with confidence.

Versatile – Tallow, or Lard (rendered pork fat) can be used for cooking, baking, beauty care and leather care.

Pin Now For Later

Top Tips for Perfectly Rendered Tallow Every Time

• Never add water! Oil and water don’t mix. Water when rendering is an impurity and can trap other impurities that you are trying to remove during the rendering process and can cause your final product, tallow, to spoil or mold.
• Small Pieces Using small pieces when rendering not only allows the render to go quicker it also creates a better yield. Waste not want not. If you can request your butcher to grind your beef fat this will be the best option. Otherwise you can use a food processor or chop it by hand (My Method).
• Low Heat When rendering you want to use low heat and render your beef fat slowly. Rendering is a melting process. This will prevent burning your fat and imparting a burnt flavor to your finished product.

Why Rendering Your Own Tallow is Worth It

Cost: Purchasing tallow is EXPENSIVE! In my area a quart jar of tallow sells for about $20. If you’re purchasing an animal, get the whole animal. You will have paid a flat rate for your cow, you might as well utilize every part in true nose to tail fashion. Ask for the fat! If you aren’t buying a cow, many butchers have excess fat (most people don’t ask for it) and are more than willing to sell it for a low price.

Quality: As with anything, making it at home insures you the best quality product and the knowledge of what is in that product. Tallow should be only tallow, no fillers. Plus you will know the quality beef you have purchased. Opt for grass-fed, non GMO and local.

Volume: One cow can yield more than enough tallow for one family. In my experience I can render enough tallow from one cow for skin care products such as Tallow Moisturizer, soap making and cooking oil for the year.

Different Types Of Beef Fat For Tallow

Here is a basic explanation of the different types of beef fat on a cow for rendering however, for cooking stick with suet and fat cap beef fat to render. If you choose to render the belly fat use this tallow for cold process soap or maintaining leather products.

Suet – Most prized for tallow (Leef Lard)

• Fat surrounding kidneys
• Hard and white and has a higher melting point
• Ideal for cooking as it has the least beefy flavor when rendered.

Fat Cap

• On the exterior of meat cuts like brisket and ribeye
• Thicker and softer than suet.
• Can be rendered but is usually left on meat cuts when butchered. Also includes more impurities in the fat during the rendering process.

Belly Fat

• Fat on the belly of a cow.
• Easy to render, but imparts a strong beefy flavor to your tallow.
• If rendered – Use for soap or maintaining leather boots and furniture

Marbled Fat

• Not an ideal beef fat for rendering.
• Muscular fat that is throughout the meat of a beef cow.

Benefits of Using Homemade Tallow for Cooking

Local: For one thing, things like olives and coconuts do not grow near me. Sourcing my cooking oil locally and sustainably through my local farms is a wonderful way to supply my family with oil.

High Smoke Point: Tallow has a smoke point around 400ºF which makes it ideal for seasoning cast iron skillets, frying potatoes and searing meats without creating carcinogens. No, I won’t be using it on salads.

Rancidity: The low heat and small batch processing of rendering beef fat at home prevents tallow from becoming rancid before you ingest it. One of the properties of tallow (and Lard) is that it resists oxidation and can be stored long term on the pantry shelf. Unlike most of the seed oil counterparts on the market today.

How to Store and Preserve Homemade Tallow

Storing tallow is quite simple. Quart sized mason jars are ideal for storing tallow. They are glass and air tight to help prevent oxidation. Since tallow (and lard) are liquid and hot when rendered, but solid at room temperature, avoid using plastic to store your tallow as it may melt and or impart microplastics into your tallow.

Tallow can be stored in a cool dark place for upwards of a year as long as it is air tight. You can also store tallow in the refrigerator or freezer.

Step-by-Step Guide: Rendering Beef Fat into Tallow

How to use Beef Tallow

If you have rendered tallow with either fat cap or suet:

• Cooking
• Baking
• Seasoning Cast Iron Skillets
• Beauty Products

Tallow made from rendering beef belly fat:

• Cold – Process Soap (belly fat tallow is used for this in our home, learn to make your own tallow soap here)
• Leather Care
• Tallow Sugar Scrub (If you don’t mind the smell or add essential oils for scent)
• Seasoning Cast Iron Skillets