Tallow / Beef Dripping - What Is It & How To Use It? - Butcher Magazine (2024)

FAQs

How do you use beef dripping on beef? ›

Uses: In the past, dripping was served as a spread and 'bread and dripping' was considered to be a real treat after the traditional Sunday roast. Nowadays it is used mainly as a cooking fat - either for shallow frying meat, as a roasting fat for potatoes or to dot over a joint to keep it moist during cooking.

Beef tallow is rendered fat from cattle, often derived from suet, which is the hard, saturated fat found around a steer's kidneys. It is used in a variety of applications including frying food, making candles, and even skin products.

Dripping is a great fat for cooking as it is flavoursome, nutritious, and stable at high temperatures. Tallow is actually a generic term for any type of rendered fat. In the US it is most commonly used to refer to what we here in the UK call dripping – rendered beef fat.

Officially, considering food safety guidelines, I should really say that you could keep it in a sealed container in the fridge for about a week. But unofficially, providing it has been stored in a cold part of the fridge, in a clean sealed jar, we would keep it for a month for cooking.

Beef dripping is thought to be good for increasing “good” cholesterol levels and supporting cognition and brain health as well as a strong metabolism. The highest quality dripping comes from grass fed cattle as opposed to those conventionally raised on grain in feed lots.

This dripping, technically known as suet, keeps in the fridge for months and can be used to deep fry up to five times provided it is strained through a fine sieve after each use. It adds fabulous flavour and texture to dumplings or suet pastry and supreme steak and kidney pudding.

Suet and Tallow Are Healthy Fats.

Suet and Tallow, just like avocado oil and coconut oil consists of natural and healthy unrefined saturated fats ~ an ideal daily addition to your healthy diet. Processed vegetable and seed oils like Canola Oil and Sunflower Oil are high in unhealthy polyunsaturated fats.

Beef tallow has a distinct, rich flavor that is similar to butter or other animal fats. It adds a depth of beefy flavor to dishes that other vegetable oils and types of fat can't achieve.

Beef tallow was initially used because the supplier for McDonald's couldn't afford vegetable oil. In the 1990s, as health concerns over saturated fat reached an all-time high, McDonald's faced a backlash against the use of beef tallow, and worried about losing customers, the chain switched to vegetable oil.

Tallow will solidify and keep at room temperature in a sealed container for up to a year and won't go rancid. Beef Tallow will keep even longer in the refrigerator or indefinitely in the freezer.

Does Burger King use beef tallow? ›

This Washington Post article from 1985 identifies Arby's, Bob's Big Boy, Burger King, Hardee's, McDonald's, Popeyes, and Wendy's as fast-food spots that use beef tallow in their fryers. All but one of these have swapped the tallow out for supposedly healthier oils in recent years.

McDonald's cooked its fries in beef tallow for decades

Founded in 1940, McDonald's initially used 93% beef fat tallow for their French fries in an effort to save money, according to a piece on the origins of the favored fast food item published by Atlas Obscura.

You're going to love cooking with beef tallow. You can fry it, bake with it, and basically use it for any savory dish that requires cooking oil. Try it for your next omelet. Sauté fresh greens with a little garlic, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and beef tallow for a new spin on green leafy vegetables.

The Difference Between Tallow and Lard

The basic difference is that tallow comes from beef and other ruminants, while lard is produced from rendered pork fat. Lard and tallow are both rendered fats and they can largely be used interchangeably.

In 1990, the company announced that they would replace the beef tallow with 100 percent vegetable oil. After the announcement, McDonald's stock fell 8.3 percent. The new fry didn't stack up. As it turns out, the beef tallow had added more than just cholesterol to the signature french fry.

Tallow does have a natural odor, it smells different to everyone and some may love it (we think it smells like icing) while others may not. Some batches don't smell like tallow at all while some do end up with a faint tallow smell, it all depends on a variety of factors that are impossible to control.

Rub the steak fillet with melted beef fat or beef dripping, and season heavily with fine Cornish sea salt. Step 2Place in a very hot dry cast iron pan for 3-4min on each side so you get a deep crust, ensuring you're constantly moving the steak around the pan until it's beautiful brown.

Best cuts: Sirloin tip side steak, eye of round roast, top round steak and bottom round steak. Worst cuts: T-bone steak, rib-eye steak, filet mignon and porterhouse steak. Best cuts: Breast. Worst cuts: Thigh, wing, drumstick and leg.

Beef suet, the internal fat covering the kidneys and inner organs is the best fat to use to make dripping/tallow. You can use any beef fat, but kidney suet melts faster and better and has fewer solids to dispose of when the process is finished.

When it comes to dripping, it has more calories than butter (889 per 100g compared with 717) and the same amount of saturated fat (51 per cent) but by virtue of its much stronger flavour, far less is required.

Can you cook roast potatoes in beef dripping? ›

Put a few tablespoons of dripping into a roasting tin and place in the oven with the meat for about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes to the tin, turning to ensure that they are basted in the fat. Sprinkle with fine sea salt. Cook for about an hour or until crisp and golden.

The jelly is fantastic used pretty quickly in stews, casseroles or sauces but it is the white fat that needs to be taken off and clarified. Clarifying is a simple process but it is time consuming and a little messy. Basically you melt the fat slowly again once you have removed it from the jelly.

Pork or beef dripping can be served cold, spread on bread and sprinkled with salt and pepper (bread and dripping). If the flavourful brown sediment and stock from the roast has settled to the bottom of the dripping and coloured it brown, then in parts of Yorkshire it is known colloquially as a "mucky fat" sandwich.

As mentioned above, tallow provides both saturated and monounsaturated fats. It's made up of about 40 percent to 50 percent monounsaturated fats, which are considered one of the most heart-healthy fats in our diets. This is the same type of fat found in olive oil.

Because beef fat is 19% stearic acid, the cholesterol-raising potential of beef is not as great as predicted by its total saturated fatty acid content. However, beef tallow is hypercholesterolemic compared with fats containing less cholesterol-raising saturated fatty acid.

Tallow is rendered beef fat that works wonders for skin care. Tallow's natural oils may aid in skin hydration and can be used on dry and oily skin. It contains vitamin E, which has antioxidant properties that protect the skin from UV rays and fight the signs of aging.

Recommended Uses:Tallow VS Ghee

Ghee: Ghee is excellent for high-temperature cooking like sauteing, high-heat frying, and roasting. Tallow: Tallow shines when fried or roasted. You can use it when you wish to make your vegetable dish meat-rich.

If you overcook the tallow, it will have a darker appearance and stronger taste.

Organic, unrefined avocado oil is the healthiest choice to use for cooking. Tallow is a form of rendered animal fat, usually made from beef, although there are also vegetarian versions also available. If you're using beef to make tallow, the healthiest tallow comes from grass-fed beef, not grain-fed beef.

Once at the restaurant, our fries are simply cooked in dedicated frying vats in a non-hydrogenated blend of sunflower and rapeseed oil which is 100 percent suitable for vegetarians. In fact, McDonald's French Fries are officially accredited by the Vegetarian Society.

What oil does McDonald's use for french fries? ›

We stick to a gold standard that helps us ensure we deliver you a great tasting McDonald's fry. It starts with the right potatoes, which we cut exactly right, and then use a canola-blend oil with just the right amount of flavoring.

Step 2: Dip in “Ingredient Bath”

The now-cut and blanched fries are dipped in an “ingredient bath” which consists of dextrose and sodium acid pyrophosphate.

Tallow storage

The main hazards to tallow quality during storage are possible overheating, which can cause an increase in bleached colour, and growth of bacteria, which cause an increase in free fatty acids.

Rendered beef fat is shelf-stable long-term. If made correctly and stored in a clear jar, tallow will not spoil. Using a dirty container or having any traces of water in the fat usually leads to some sort of mold growing on either the surface of the tallow, the rim of the jar, or the lid.

Your tallow will be finished rendering when the fat covers most of the remaining pieces in the pan. Those pieces will be lightly browned and look crisp all over. You won't be able to see any more white or solid pieces of fat. Strain the rendered fat.

Many restaurants cook their french fries in oil which is containing beef tallow, or they use the same oil for fries and meat, but Chick-fil-A does not.

Popeyes uses a combination of beef tallow and partially hydrogenated beef tallow in their fryer oil. This produces a lower trans fat content than what you might find at Church's.

Cooked In Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil, Vegetable Oil [May Contain One Or More Of The Following: Canola, Corn, Or Cottonseed], Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Dimethylpolysiloxane [Anti-Foaming Agent]). Seasoned With Sea Salt. COOKED IN THE SAME OIL AS MENU ITEMS THAT CONTAIN WHEAT, MILK, AND FISH. Salt: Sea Salt.

BWW uses seed oils, but they generally fry their wings in beef tallow. Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) has become synonymous with delicious wings that have been fried to perfection.

"It's because McDonald's cooks their fries with beef flavoring mixed within their vegetable oil, right," Howlett continued. "So, that's why the fries taste so good but also so different from everybody else's."

Can you cook eggs in beef tallow? ›

Preheat pan to medium heat. Using a mesh strained, crack eggs into it in order to separate the yolk / stronger white from the water whites. Add about a teaspoon of wagyu beef tallow and carefully slip the eggs into the pan, directly over the now Melted tallow.

The very healthiest beef tallow comes from grass-fed cattle. Grass-fed tallow is higher in healthy saturated fats, omega 3's, stearic acid, and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than 'regular' tallow. It also provides other fat-soluble nutrients like: Vitamin A.

Frying with tallow is possibly the best use of beef fat. Tallow has a smoke point of 420ºF which is why tallow lends itself well to high heat cooking like frying. The original McDonald's french fry was fried in tallow. Grass fed beef tallow is also good for getting a nice searing steaks!

Tallow is made from the boiled carcasses of slaughtered sheep and cows, which the fatty product is then derived from.

Tallow can be stored in a: Pantry – Tallow stored at room temperature has a shelf life of up to 12 months. Refrigerator – Tallow kept in a fridge has a shelf life of 12 to 18 months. Freezer – Frozen tallow can be kept in a freezer for over 24 months.

The difference is a matter of sourcing. Tallow is rendered beef fat, while lard is rendered pork fat.

This dripping, technically known as suet, keeps in the fridge for months and can be used to deep fry up to five times provided it is strained through a fine sieve after each use. It adds fabulous flavour and texture to dumplings or suet pastry and supreme steak and kidney pudding.

Beef dripping is also more stable than vegetable oils and fats when used for frying. For more technical information on that, go to the Nortech Foods site. The result is that dripping is good for making roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. It was also traditionally the fat of choice for making British fish and chips.

By any estimation, lard is a healthier fat than butter. Gram for gram, it contains 20% less saturated fat, and it's higher in the monounsaturated fats which seem to lower LDL cholesterol (the "bad" kind) and raise HDL (the "good").

Beef suet, the internal fat covering the kidneys and inner organs is the best fat to use to make dripping/tallow. You can use any beef fat, but kidney suet melts faster and better and has fewer solids to dispose of when the process is finished.

How do you use tallow? ›

Use tallow to cook at high heat, and as a replacement for vegetable and other industrial oils in recipes. You can also use tallow to soothe dry skin and heal skin infections. You could also try making soap and candles with this ancestral fat!

Get a large heavy-based frying pan smoking hot and add the beef dripping. Season the steak with salt and sear in the beef dripping, rolling the steak in the pan until it is brown all over.

Animal fats or tallow has a negative impact on human health by increasing LDL-cholesterol, obesity and enhance the risk of coronary heart diseases and other diseases like cancer (Yuan et al., 1999; Jurek et al., 2005; Zeb and Ali, 2008).

Beef Dripping gives that unique, 'old-fashioned' flavour to roast potatoes, chips and Yorkshire puddings – for a traditional snack, try it spread it on a slice of bread with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Storage Hints

Good up to 9 months from when it was made, if kept in refrigerator. Store covered. It freezes well.

Considered the most tender cut of all, a filet mignon is taken from the center of the beef tenderloin. It is lean yet delivers a melt-in-your mouth, buttery succulence.