Everything you need to know about beef tallow
We’ve been experimenting with some cool and unique products with our butcher friends at Brooks Meat Packers, and we’ve found something really unique that we want to share with our favorite people (that’s you!)
What is tallow?
Tallow is a term that refers to rendered animal fat, usually from ruminant animals, like cattle. Rendering fat just means that the fat is cooked down and melted. If you’re wondering what the difference is between tallow and lard, its actually quite simple - tallow is from cattle (or other ruminants), and lard usually refers to pork fat. We might be biased, but we do think that beef tallow is the better of the two.
Tallow benefits
Tallow has a lot of health benefits and is rich in nutrients. It is high in a variety of vitamins like A, D, K, E and B1, and is high in natural anti-oxidants like conjugated linoleic acid. A lot of people ask about the differents in nutritional value between grass-fed and grain-fed tallow. For that, we’re going to look to some real sciency-types for information. A study conducted at the University of Illinois carried out an analysis of fatty acids in both kinds of tallow and found:
“The largest differences between the two samples were the total concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and the balance between the omega-3 and omega-6 forms of these fatty acids. Grass-fed tallow had 45 percent less total PUFA, 66 percent less omega-6 linoleic acid, and four times more omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid. The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids was over sixteen for the grain-fed tallow but only 1.4 for the grass-fed tallow. Whatever the ratios, beef tallow is not a rich source of polyunsaturated fatty acids, with only 3.45 percent in grain-fed and 1.9 percent of the total in grass-fed.”
Cooking with tallow
Tallow is an exceptional option for using as a cooking fat or oil. It has a very mild flavour, and can be used from everything from frying and sauteeing, to make pastries and pie crusts. Beef tallow fries? Yes please! It has a high smoke point of 420F, and can even be used in a variety of diets where specific fats are limited, like keto. Even McDonald’s knows the benefit of frying with tallow - the original world famous fries were fried in tallow! You can even sear your Hale Ranch Beef steaks in tallow….
Buying tallow
As we mentioned, we have been experimenting with new products, of which tallow is just one. We’re happy to offer 400g containers of tallow for $12, or two for $20 until the end of March, or while supplies last. If we see the demand, we’ll keep bringing it back for all our wonderful customers.
Do you love tallow? Leave us a comment below and tell us your favorite way to use it!
