How to Cook with Beef Tallow: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes

Learn the nutritional benefits and how beef tallow can be used for cooking with easy methods for rich, savory flavor in meats, veggies, fries, and more.

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Why You’ll Love This

Ancestral – Cooking with beef tallow is an ancestral fat. Cultures would use entire animals and the cooking oil that was local to them.

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

Nutritional – Beef tallow is full of essential vitamins for our bodies that can only be found in animal products.

Want To Learn To Render Your Own Tallow?

Check out my full post on How To Make Beef Tallow where I share a step by step guide to rendering beef fat.

In this post I cover:

• Why Rendering Your Own Tallow Is Worth It
• How To Store Tallow
• My Top Tips On Rendering Beef Fat
• Step by Step Guide to Rendering Beef Fat into Tallow

Types Of Tallow Used For Cooking

Many people are unaware that there are different types of tallow. Typically the tallow available for purchase has been rendered from suet. If you’re interested in rendering your own either from a butcher or your own animal it is best to stick with suet or fat cap beef fat for cooking tallow. There are four different types of beef fat on a cow for rendering into tallow they are:

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 Tallow for Cooking, Is Beef Tallow Healthy?

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.

Nutritional Benefits: Suet particularly is 70-80% saturated fat which means it’s comprised of short chain fatty acids. These fats have antimicrobial properties, are readily absorbed by the digestive system and contribute to the health of our immune system. (Source: Nourishing Traditions) Other nutritional benefits of tallow are:

• Arachindonic acid – A Omega 6 fatty acid that helps with brain function and maintaining cell membranes.
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin K2 (Heavily researched by the Weston A Price Foundation)
• Calcium
• Iron
• Magnesium
• Zinc

How To cook With Beef Tallow

The easiest way to cook with beef tallow is to use it in place of oil in any beef recipe. Tallow enhances flavor and supports high-heat cooking. Here are some versatile and delicious ways to incorporate beef tallow into your everyday cooking:

• Use tallow as the cooking oil for beef dishes like meatballs or burgers.
• Mix it into ground beef or lean meats like venison to improve moisture in burgers and meatballs.
• Use as a base for beef soups and stews, adding depth and richness.
• Add to your basting mix for grilling steaks or beef cuts.
• Braise roasts with beef tallow as the fat component for tender meat.
• Grind tallow into lean meats to increase fat content.

Beef tallow is also ideal for frying, roasting, searing, sautéing, baking, and even greasing baking pans. Fun fact: tallow was once the oil of choice for McDonald’s iconic French fries. At home, we still use it to fry fries—the beefy flavor and salt combo is irresistible!

Tallow isn’t just for meat—it’s amazing with vegetables too. Use it to roast root vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. When used in a vegetable medley with mushrooms, onions, and potatoes, tallow adds rich flavor, helps with browning, and creates a crispy texture that makes any side dish stand out.

Recipes That Use Beef Tallow

Some of my favorite ways to use tallow other than cooking is through tallow skincare – Check out my recipes for both Tallow Moisturizer and how to make your own Tallow Sugar Scrub.