The Dishes You Should Absolutely Never Cook With Beef Tallow, According To A Chef

Aside from slathering beef tallow all over their faces on TikTok, people have been using this fat to cook. Chef Kieron Hales, the co-founding partner at Zingerman's Cornman Farms, feels that beef tallow is a great ingredient for deep frying, roasting, and pastry work. However, according to our expert chef, there are mistakes you should avoid when cooking with beef tallow, including some dishes you shouldn't make with it. "Beef tallow is intensely rich, which is fantastic in some cases but overwhelming in others," Hales said. "It's not ideal for delicate dishes — think flaky white fish, light vegetable sautes..."

For example, you may want to use butter instead of beef tallow to cook any one of our eight crave-worthy cod recipes. Cod is delicate and light-flavored and the richness of beef tallow can swallow the subtle sweetness of the fish. Avoid the lighter veggie dishes but go wild with beef tallow when roasting root vegetables. 

Additionally, chef Hales feels that beef tallow may not be the best fat to use when cooking certain pasta dishes. He stated, "The strong beefy flavor would overpower a delicate beurre blanc or a simple olive oil-based pasta sauce." So if you're making, let's say Julia Child's beurre blanc sauce to upgrade your veggies or pasta, avoid using beef tallow.

Chef Hales also feels we should avoid beef tallow when making salads. "Tallow also solidifies at room temperature," he explained, "so it's not great for dressings or vinaigrettes where you need fluidity." When making a simple vinaigrette salad dressing recipe, it's best to stick with extra-virgin olive oil. 

Finally, the chef also recommends avoiding the use of beef tallow to make most desserts. Beef tallow's richness is too overpowering in light desserts, such as fruit parfaits, custards, and pudding. However, the chef does feel there's a place for beef tallow in baking and pastry work. "When you want a flaky, crisp texture [beef tallow] ... is actually my go to fat," he elaborated. "It's also excellent in savory pie crusts, especially for meat pies, giving them that beautifully crisp, golden shell."

For extra flakey and crispy cookies, you may want to try baking with beef tallow instead of butter. In fact, bakers used to use lard, the rendered fat from pigs, to make the flakiest cookies. So, the next time you're itching to use beef tallow for cooking or baking, instead of slathering it all over your skin, remember that it works well with richer, bolder ingredients and dishes, rather than lighter and more delicate ones.