My home-made cheeeeep tallow


(Raj Seth) #1

I just got a Yuge hunk of leaf fat from my high $$ prime butcher - one piece - 21 lbs - paid US$ 10 total not per lb. - cheeeeep Took 11 lbs., cut into blocks, put thru my grinder, heated in 12 quart stock pot - low flame for 1 hour - got 5+ quarts of beautiful tallow.

I use tallow and bacon fat for all cooking. Pan frying, deep frying, sautéing, general cooking, etc.
I have several different tallow containers and hordes:

A batch of tallow labeled “virgin tallow”, clean unused pure virgin white tallow.
Yes - its so beautiful I had to post the pic a second time!


A stock pot full of tallow for deep frying chicken wings - heat on stove, deep fry, filter thru tea sieve, back in pot, store in pantry with a tight lid (6-8 months old now - good as new) This is after 6-8 months of frying wings and re-use. Fry temp 325-350F.

Note cling wrap around the edge of the lid to make a tighter seal.

The mesh sieves I use to get the crud out - no cheese cloth, paper filter etc.

A batch of tallow for pan frying - put in pan, fry, filter thru sieve, put back in bottle.


A batch of tallow for faux sous vide steak - put in instant pot duo SV, set to appropriate temp (Ribeye 110, Chuck 131 etc.)

A batch of ground beef fat, un rendered, put in a cup cake mold, frozen, then bagged to add to ground beef to up the fat content for deliciousness. Just like @ctviggen describes below.


(Bob M) #2

We also put ours in molds and freeze them. Once frozen, we put them in plastic bags. If you use a variety of sizes of molds, you have smaller or larger pieces of tallow. This way, you can take out 1-2 small pieces for searing a steak or beef liver.

We do this also when we cook a duck, goose, or anything that has a lot of fat (not bacon, though).

Another thing we do is use a slow cooker on high. This way, you can set it say overnight.


(Ken) #3

Don’t forget it makes the best leather dressing for shoes, coats, cases etc. 1/2 beef fat, 1/4 pork fat, 1/4 beeswax.


(Bob M) #4

I had no idea… I’ll have to see about this, as I have everything but the beeswax.

By the way, why can I buy lard (non-hydrogenated, pure) and duck fat locally, but I can’t buy tallow locally? Doesn’t make sense. Trying to make enough for a fryer is a challenge.


(Raj Seth) #5

@ctviggen - I found that if I added rendered tallow to meat for burgers - it would all come out during the cooking - adding unrendered ground beef fat seems to allow the fat to remain within the burger maybe because it is still trapped in the collagen matrix?


(Raj Seth) #6

Oh - almost forgot - bacon grease


(Bob M) #7

That seems reasonable, especially because tallow is basically pure fat, while beef “fat” is not. Or at least when you make tallow, there’s a bunch of “stuff” in there that I normally throw away.

Supposedly, you can make “cracklings” with that “stuff”, but I have not tried that yet.


(Raj Seth) #8

For fans of Dr. Seuss


This is the green bacon grease I got after cooking my thanksgiving turkey.

I separated legs, wings & breast and zip-loc bagged dark and white meat, added fresh parsley (green color), sage, rosemary and thyme, filled with bacon grease, and sous-vide them (chef steps method). Then roasted in 475F (250C) for 15 mins to brown - serve - best turkey. I call that sous-vide confit turkey - even though its not technically confit.


(Raj Seth) #9

OFF WITH HIS HEAD!!!

No no no - that is pure beef crackling’ goodness. season those little pieces of futz - pan fry to warm them up - deliciousness in every mouthful!!


#10

Fat-wax! :slight_smile:


(Bob M) #11

I do plan on making cracklin’s next time. I have a bunch of fat in my freezer and just need to get around to making it.

How do you store the “cracklin’s”? In the fridge? In a container in a cabinet?


(Todd Allen) #12

Beef fat and tallow have become my main cooking fats but I don’t reuse them as I don’t deep fry but just add the amount of fat I want to eat to my food when cooking.


(Raj Seth) #13

Fridge / freezer depending. Can’t warm them in microwave - get yucky and soft - but a quick pan fry on high heat restores crispy goodness.

All rendered saturated fats - strictly room temp in airtight containers.


(Raj Seth) #14

Heathen :face_with_hand_over_mouth:
Next you’re going to say you add sugar to “lorem ipsum”


(Todd Allen) #15

I love these forums, I learn something new here daily. Had to look up “lorem ipsum”. Personally I think it is best unsweetened.


(Raj Seth) #16

Deep fry burgers or meatballs- bread with pork rind dust, or nekkid. Nice change-up.
For deep fried burgers, squish the patty fairly tight - else it may come apart - ask me how I know…
If you are a fan of falafel, small, one inch meatballs, deep fried are a good substitute.

I think I just saw somewhere recipes for carnivore substitution of popular vegetarian items. Vegans have “beyond” & “impossible” burgers - we need to have carnivore veggies :thinking:


#17

I actually can’t imagine the situation where deep frying would cross my mind… (Except regarding certain carby plants but I almost never eat them, it will be even more rare in the future and it’s messy anyway, that’s why I always did my best to avoid deep frying.)
Frying things in a minimal amount of fat is just perfect for me every time. I could fry and eat things with zero added fat for quite a while, I like to have some very fatty meat and that’s enough for frying my eggs as well.
When I will start to eat more and need more fat, these things will change but it still won’t be deep frying, just using some lard and when I finally can get some, beef fat.
It’s waaaaaaaaaaaay easier to get pork and lard here, the farmer’s market in the city is full with smoked pork and lard (and eggs and cheese). People often raise chickens, ducks and rabbits so that’s not very hard to find either. There are lots of cattle around here, fortunately, I just need to go to a farm personally, at the right time after I ordered my meat and was quick enough.


(Bob M) #18

Tons of things. Fried chicken. Chicken tenders (made with dark meat of course). Fried cheese (mozzarella sticks, usually). Chicken wings. Etc.

We make fried mozzarella sticks that are fantastic. Between 4 of us, we could easily eat two packages of them. The kids love them.