Howdy, all of a sudden, to me at least, they're a bunch of ads for beef tallow. What is/are the facts about cooking with tallow? What foods are best cooked with tallow? What is the best brand of tallow? Lots of questions.

I use beef tallow quite a bit. One of my faves is okra with a Julienne onion in a cast iron on the Egg. Amazing flavors.

Howdy and Thanks, now what brand is best?? I am an HEB guy.

Mark Fairchild said:

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Howdy and Thanks, now what brand is best?? I am an HEB guy.

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Not sure about brands, but when I smoke a brisket I use the fat trimmings to make tallow. Either on the stovetop or in the smoker to get a bit of a smokey flavor.

This brand is excellent. It's what we buy when we haven't got home made.

Tallow is phenomenol for searing

Tallow is great for beef and beef dishes, but I prefer lard, schmaltz, butter, or avocado oil for pretty much everything else. Even highly refined tallow has a relatively strong flavor for everything else. It's great for tortillas for Birria tacos as well. I also use it in masa for beef tamales. I buy the South Chicago brand from Amazon for both Lard and Beef tallow

Good point on the beef flavor of tallow. I use tallow for potatoes, occasionally for searing beef, and that's about it. Most searing I use algae oil, olive oil for stuff not needing high heat, and peanut oil for deep frying. Also lots of butter and sometimes ghee depending on the dish

Academy sells that brand as well if you don't want to wait on Amazon.

If you're gonna render your own beef tallow from trimmings, you must go slow. I can tell you from experience if you get impatient and try to speed it up by increasing the heat it doesn't taste good.

I think Tuttles meat market in Rockport carries the Chicago brand tallow.

I've smoked some bison here and there, bison ribs, bison brisket.

Since bison is really lean, adding tallow gives it a little more moisture and keeps it from becoming too dry on a long smoke.

For me the flavor of beef tallow on veggies is great. On okra, green beans, potatoes are awesome..pretty much anything. To each their own.

Always have on hand:

beef tallow
lard
bacon grease
duck fat
avocado oil
ghee
extra virgin olive oil
regular olive oil
peanut oil

Always use tallow in chili or stew and lard or duck fat instead of vegetable oil makes a fantastic gumbo. 50/50 mix any of the animal fats and ghee is great for pan frying diced potatoes.

RCR06 said:

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If you're gonna render your own beef tallow from trimmings, you must go slow. I can tell you from experience if you get impatient and try to speed it up by increasing the heat it doesn't taste good.

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I've considered this but I'm assuming any savings in cost are outweighed by the judgement I'll get from my wife. She still thinks it's weird that I have a jar of bacon fat in the fridge since she didn't grow up in a house that does that kind of thing. I haven't asked before, but I can only assume you can buy beef trimmings from the butcher shop for next to nothing.

This sounds crazy...and in reality it is. I still have a pint jar of rendered bear fat in my fridge. About five years ago, a co-worker of mine, who hunts bear (this was in Pittman Center, Tennessee), brings in a box and starts handing out jars to a few of us. I honestly thought it was lard. I only used it once...and that was to fry an egg. It's pretty neat stuff.

It's not beef but the pork version is delicious.

Go at any Mexican market and they have tons of containers of Manteca.