Beef Tallow

My greatest and latest inspiration is fat. Fat is beautiful. Fat is also very controversial. I had some socially engrained fat-phobic years in my past and went so far as to lose my hair over it. (I’m serious) My locks regrew & strengthened by incorporating olive oil, brazil nuts & almond however saturated fats found in coconut and animals were far from my kitchen repertoire. Thankfully that’s no longer the case.

Rendered Beef Tallow

I owe much of my health, healing and grounding to seeking the truth & actually finding it. Today copious amounts of saturated fats (homemade, NOT store bought crisco) are mainstays in my diet and a huge part of my cooking. I think we’ve all been instructed to eat coconut oil due to its popularity as a health food, its medium chain fatty acid profile and anti-microbial benefits. But learning about what fatty acids are (chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms filling the available bonds) has really helped to understand the spectrum of saturated to polyunsaturated, short to very long chain and the breadth in between and why we need them so. Today’s post pays particular homage to saturated fat – those rendered from animals like cattle and pork.

If it wasn’t for the taste alone, the amazing nutritional benefits and sustainability of using the whole animal gets my wheels spinning. In short…because I want to give you a gem, not a barrel full, it breaks down to this:

• Tallow is rendered saturated fat from beef cattle and other ruminates. Lard is rendered saturated fat from pigs.
• Rendered animal fat is stable during high heat cooking & frying. Vegetable & seed oils are delicate, and will oxidize under extreme heat (because their extraction process is so intense they’ve gone rancid by the time they’re packaged)
• It’s high in Vitamin D (lard apparently is a bit higher – as if bacon wasn’t enticing enough it turns out that the body actually produces nitrates in higher quantities after eating certain vegetables than bacon with added nitrates, look here) which means stronger bones and increased immunity
• Increases the potency of CLA (conjugated linolenic acid) and protects against breast tumors
• Cholesterol & saturated fat are important for the heart as this vital muscle is surrounded by it. The body pulls on these reserves of fat around the heart when in stress.

Ulu Fritters fried in Beef Tallow

I’ve collected the tallow from cooking bones which I made broth from and set it in the fridge to chill. The hardened fat that settles at the top is the tallow I’m suggesting you save and use for any & all cooking purposes. Start by using it for veggies and eggs and then see where your imagination takes you. I use it in frying especially because all the other oils are too delicate to sustain the heat. If I’ve left you curious for more info on fat and why we need it, especially the once shunned hardened fats please visit The Weston A. Price Foundations’ site and this article in particular.