How To Make High-Quality Beef Tallow With The Help Of Your Local Grocery Store

Although it comes in and out of fashion, beef tallow has been one of the most beloved, reliable, and flavorful cooking fats for generations. Tallow is simply rendered beef fat, a byproduct of the butchering process put to good use. A spoonful of tallow in a hot skillet gives potatoes crisp, golden edges and adds a savory backbone to roasted vegetables or seared meats that other fats can't touch. It's the secret ingredient to some of the best pie crusts, and people even put it on their popcorn.

If tallow seems old fashioned or hard to find, it's likely because you haven't realized how easy it is to make yourself with just a stop at the grocery store. You don't need to raise your own cattle or know a specialty butcher — you just need to know where, how, and what to ask for, and the few easy steps to turn the raw material into clean, richly flavored tallow.

Butcher Jamie Waldron, owner of J. Waldron Butchers in Hamilton, Ontario, encourages home cooks to skip the commercially produced, large batch tallow and trust their own stove. It's what cooks have done for time in memoriam, and it's an easy two-step process. His recommendation: just check with your grocer or butcher. If they process meat, they have fat scraps. According to Waldron, "If your grocer can secure you beef kidney fat from well raised animals, I'd suggest doing it yourself. It's not that hard, but it does take time. Have the grocer grind it for you, if possible." He recommends, "Take it home and put it all in a pot and put it on the stovetop on a low heat with just a bit of water."

Waldron says to ask for beef kidney suet first, which is the firm, crumbly fat that surrounds the kidneys and loins of the animal, because true suet is prized as the purest, mildest beef fat, producing a tallow that's snow-white, shelf-stable, and subtle in flavor. Suet's high melting point and lack of impurities set it apart from other types of fat that you might find at the store, and it will render down into tallow that's neutral and universally useful.

If kidney suet isn't available, your next option is more generic beef fat trimmings. These are the offcuts from around the animal, often softer, sometimes streaked with bits of meat or connective tissue. They're totally usable, but they will bring a beefier flavor, can render a bit yellow, and the fat will have a shorter shelf life. Then there's caul fat, a delicately lacy, web-like membrane that wraps around the stomach and internal organs. It's traditionally used for wrapping meats or sausages but not used for rendering tallow, as it melts away too quickly and lacks the structure needed for a clean render. 

Waldron describes his preferred rendering method, saying, "Once all the fat has liquified, remove the pot from the heat and strain it through a sieve. Let the fat chill overnight. The next day, turn the rendered fat onto a larger table and scrape any dark bits from the bottom of the fat. I then like to re-liquify the fat and run it through another fine sieve to remove any finer bits (this is the enemy of the tallow and will cause it to spoil sooner.)" Label everything by date and type, especially if you're working with trimmings, so that you can track which fats you prefer.

Once you've rendered your own tallow, you'll find there's almost nothing it can't do in the kitchen. Its high smoke point means it excels anywhere you want real browning and crispness, like roasted vegetables, pan-fried chicken, or seared steak. Some cooks use a dab to grease cast iron or heat up tortillas. Bakers rely on tallow for flaky biscuits and savory pie crusts; it's what underlies to that old-school flavor you just can't fake with butter and certainly not with shortening. And a spoonful can turn a plain pot of beans or sauteed greens into something profoundly satisfying. 

Beyond flavor, tallow brings a unique nutritional profile to the table. Unlike many commercial cooking fats, it's naturally rich in fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K, nutrients that support skin, vision, immunity, and bone health. Tallow's composition is remarkably close to the fat in our own bodies, making it easy to digest and absorb. Because you're rendering it yourself, you know exactly what's not in it: no additives, no preservatives, and none of the bitterness of ultra-processed seed oils — just pure cooking fat.

Rendered well, tallow is shelf-stable for weeks at room temperature. For longer storage, Waldron suggests, "Portion it into smaller containers and freeze it until you're ready to use." If it develops an off smell or tastes distinctly beefy, it's often a sign that the fat was rendered too hot or included too many impurities, so try a slower, gentler process next time, and always start with the cleanest fat you can find. And if you have leftover cracklings from the rendering process, don't toss them — they're a delicious all-purpose topper. Sprinkle them over salads, baked potatoes, or even scrambled eggs.