The Best Part Of Beef For Making Tallow (And Where To Get It)

Whether you're frying, roasting, or sauteing, beef tallow does it all. The ingredient can imbue food with a savory flavor and stays stable under high heat, among so many other benefits. As its popularity grows, it's becoming easier to purchase ready-made beef tallow. However, it's incredibly easy to make your own version at home — all you need is beef suet. 

Beef tallow is made by melting down chunks of fat. The rendering process clarifies the fat, transforming it into a creamy, shelf-stable ingredient that can be used for cooking and so much more. Although any fat from the cow can technically be turned into tallow, beef suet is the best one for the job. Compared to other fats from the animal, suet is mostly bland and odorless, which is key if you like to use tallow to cook a wide range of foods. Since it surrounds the cow's organs, suet has a higher amount of saturated fat, which helps with keeping beef tallow fresh for longer. Suet is found around the cow's kidneys and loins, so unless you regularly eat beef organs, it may not be something you frequently encounter. However, you can swing by your local butcher or ranch to pick up a bag of suet, or buy scraps of it from a farmer online.

If you don't have access to suet locally and do not want to wait for a shipment, there are other parts of the cow that can be used for making tallow. Before you toss the trimmings from your smoked brisket, consider rendering them down into tallow. Using a large cut like brisket is the best method for extracting beef tallow from meat. The cut usually comes with a thick slab of fat on top called the fat cap, along with other chunks of fat that will not render when smoked.

It's common to trim these off and throw them away, but turning them into tallow is the perfect no-waste way to make the most out of your brisket. If you won't be using the remaining fat right away, keep it in the freezer and add other fat trimmings from beef cuts until you are ready to whip up some tallow. When you're ready to make beef tallow, add the fat into a Dutch oven and heat it at around 250 degrees Fahrenheit before straining. To give your tallow a smoky taste that elevates your food, you can render it while smoking brisket at the same time. Place the fat trimmings in a pan and let it sit on the smoker for a few hours before straining it and storing the tallow in a jar.