How to Render Beef Fat the Easy Way (Suet vs Trim Tallow)
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Click HERE to read my policies & disclaimers if you're interested. I will only link products I use and personally recommend. Thank you for your support, friends!
I know. Literally everyone has their “way” on how to render beef fat. Beef tallow. Whatever you want to call it.
BUT.
I also have a way. And I’m going to share it whether you want me to or not. I’m all about using healthy fats, and healthy fats for me are animal based and really all we use in this household. Once you start deep frying with tallow… you will never be the same!
First things first. Like everything else, the HoMeStHeAdErs have yet again overcomplicated something extremely simple. Rendering animal fats is not hard. And then the fear mongerers and rule followers have made it SCARY. No… you do not need to add baking soda, salt, vinegar, detergents, bleach, YOU NAME IT to render your beef tallow and not smell like meat. Hear me the heck out and STOP doing those things.
Number one. When you add baking soda… I’m still just gasted to flabbers over this… you’re changing the pH of your tallow. It does NOTHING but change your tallow. The reason tallow is so popular is because it is so similar to our human skin sebum that our skin loves it. So many people have healed with tallow! So, now we have to add baking soda to make sure it doesn’t have a little smell to it?! Are you actually kidding me. And then SALT. What even. Why would we want to rub salt all over our face. WHY.
Guys.
Chill out on the additives.
Just… literally simmer the fat until it’s liquid. That’s it.
Suet Fat
The kidney fat, also know as suet, is considered the purest fat on the animal. Same goes with a hog and leaf fat… it’s the same thing, just different names, and it is also the purest fat on the hog and is flavorless and makes AMAZING pie crust. The kidney fat on cattle is just that… on the back by the kidneys. It’s a long, solid piece of fat that’s kinda triangular shaped and you’ll know what it is immediately. It is very hard and solid. There is no muscle attached to it.
This is why it can be deodorized so well without anything added to it, because there is not muscle (meat) attached to it. When rendered properly, suet fat specifically will be white and very solid, even at room temperature. Rendered suet can be cleaned of impurities and then used for skin care with basically no smell. And even if there’s a faint odor opening the jar of the fat, you will not notice it when you’re using it!
Normally, from one steer, all the suet fat will weigh around 10-13 pounds. Can be more or less depending on how they were raised, fed, and so on.
Trim Fat
Trim fat on the other hand is going to be any fat trimmed directly off muscle. It is noticeably different from suet as you will see bits of meat attached to it and it is much softer to touch than the solid suet chunk. Once you have identified both and touched them, you’ll never have to ask again! Trim fat is amazing to render down and use for cooking and soapmaking.
I use trim fat frequently for soap because the saponification process and then curing removes any beefy smell from the end product. I also use rendered trim fat for cooking, greasing baking dishes, frying (high smoke point for high temperatures), and will replace butter with it in some baking recipes, like my sandwich bread.
Trim fat is frequently sold as tallow in large buckets that are cheap but is completely deodorized with harsh detergents and chemicals. I’d rather not be rubbing that on my face. But trim is more plentiful, so I see why they do it. Not my thing though. Normally, tallow is just called tallow when you purchase it and you don’t know if it’s actually suet or trim… some businesses do label it, but many don’t. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to tell them apart at room temperature, so check this video out.
If you are ordering custom beef, ask the farmer or processor about getting the suet and trim fat from your quarter, half, or whole! They should happily oblige. Or, if that’s not an option right now, call a local butcher shop and ask if they sell suet or trim fat or kidney fat from cattle. They’ll know what you’re talking about, and sometimes you can get it for a pretty reasonable price.
Most of them toss it from what I hear, but with gaining popularity, they do hang onto it for folks and sometimes you can snag it pretty dang cheap. Just like with getting used canning jars, become that weirdo that everyone is just like… hey I have a box of fat from my cattle I don’t want and figured you might want it?! Hit that level and you’ll never have to ask again :D
But How Do I Get It Odorless?!
First, you need to choose the right fat. If you are going to make lotion or balm or whatever, you need to use the right fat from your cattle. The kidney fat, also know as suet, is considered the purest fat on the animal. Same goes with a hog and leaf lard… it’s the same thing, just different names, and it is also the purest fat on the hog and is flavorless and makes AMAZING pie crust. The kidney fat on cattle is just that… on the back by the kidneys. It’s a long, solid piece of fat that’s kinda triangular shaped and you’ll know what it is immediately. There is no muscle attached to it.
This is why it can be deodorized so well without anything added to it, because there is not muscle (meat) attached to it. When rendered properly, suet fat specifically will be white and very solid, even at room temperature. Rendered suet can be cleaned of impurities and then used for skin care with basically no smell. And even if there’s a faint odor opening the jar of the fat, you will not notice it when you’re using it!
There’s an art to purifying the tallow, which I only do with the suet, which involves multiple steps and can be kinda inconvenient, but it isn’t really labor intensive as much so as it’s a waiting game. After the tallow is rendered, strain out the big, crispy pieces, add the liquid tallow to a bowl with some water, then let it solidify. You’ll then remove the fat and scrape the impurities off, then repeat the process until you have fat that has no more impurities to scrape off. Sometimes it’s 2 times, sometimes it’s four. It’s annoying, but it’s worth it. But it’s also why I only do it with the suet specifically and just strain the trim well.
A common question I get is people asking if they can use the drippings from fry ground beef or from cooking to make lotion with. And the short answer is no, I wouldn’t. Now, if you’re desperate and don’t mind smelling like meat, go ham. But you’re gonna smell like meat. Doesn’t matter how many times you rinse it, if you add baking soda or salt, or whatever… it was touching muscle and will always have a smell. What you can do is save that fat for cooking or even for soap making. Make sure you do clean it good though.
How Do You Store Rendered Fat?
This may ruffle some feathers, but I don’t know when or where we decided that animal fats go rancid quickly, but things like vegetable shortening and grapeseed oil last forever? It’s actually the exact opposite. Animal fats, when rendered properly which we will get to, have a very long shelf life with proper storage conditions. This is ONLY IF it was rendered properly and all the water was removed. If not, you fat will mold and you will be sad. Which is why I’m writing this blog post.
I simply strain my fat really well, and if it’s trim I immediately jar it up. I let it cool and come to room temperature, then wipe the jar rims well and vacuum seal an old canning lid on. I see things all over the internet from pressure canning, to water bath canning, to only freezing, to refrigerating or you’ll die. NAH friend.
I vacuum seal that to keep moisture (and my farmhouse friends… see also: mice) out of the jars and I store them on the ground of my creepy cellar. It’s cool and dark down there. Now… if you don’t have good storage conditions, I would understand why you would want to freeze or refrigerate. But, I have kept jars of fat for YEARS on the shelf will no change in flavor or quality or smell.
Some people say to use your shelved tallow within a year, but almighty, if you’ve seen my storage you’d know that’s not possible. It’s just fine. Promise. But, at the end of the day, do you. If you feel better freezing it, freeze it. I just know myself and I won’t use it if it’s frozen. What I will do is reach for the jar by my stove and use it frequently that way! I’m actually thinking I need to get gallon buckets or big gallon jars for the fat this year because I have SO MUCH fat. I’m going to run out of quart jars at the rate I’m going.
Depending on your storage temperatures, rendered trim fat may be liquid, or partially liquid, as room temperature. That’s normal. My jar that sits by my oven 24/7 is normally very soft with some liquid pools in the center. Totally fine. Rendered suet on the other hand is always solid, even at warm room temperatures. I actually have a jar still sitting out from making balm the other day, so I stole a scoop to season my cast irons and it wasn’t easy to dig out of there! It’s such a stark and obvious difference between the two.
My Favorite Things to Use Tallow For:
- Frying french fries
- Frying chicken
- Lip balm
- Face Balm
- Soap Making
- Butter substitute
- Greasing baking dishes & pans
- Cast iron pans (my homemade cast iron wax seasoning compound)
Beef tallow has a pretty high smoke point, around 400-420 degrees F, which makes it work really well for frying!
How to Render Beef Fat: Dry vs Wet Rendering
This is a highly opinionated area to walk in to. I wet render, meaning I add a little water to my fat when I’m heating it up. I prefer this because I am the queen of distraction and burning and I would CRY real tears if I burnt my fat. I also thing that adding water helps the fat to heat up faster and start melting. It’s really whatever you’re about though, so if you’d prefer dry rendering, just don’t add the water during the rendering process. The rest stays the same.
Let me show you how to render beef fat!
Equipment You Might Want:
- Electric Roaster
- Slow Cooker
- Stock Pot
- Glass Canning Jars
- Canning Lids
- Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer
Ingredients:
- Suet or Trim
- Water
Step 1: Prep
Start by thawing your fat and cutting into small chunks. My meat grinder is pretty wimpy, but grinding it up would be ideal. I don’t have that luxury, so I just hack it up by hand into pretty big chunks. That does make the rendering process take a bit longer, but it’s not that noticeable. Tallow takes considerably longer to render than lard does!
Add the chunks of fat to your roaster pan, slow cooker insert, or on the stove top (no matter what vessel you use… the instructions will be the same).
Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.
Add the lid and turn to medium heat, high on your slow cooker, or about 300F on the electric roaster.
Step 2: Cooking
After about 30-60 minutes, the fat should be softening and easier to stir. Stir very well and add the lid back on if the fat hasn’t melted a bit yet. I usually let it heat with the lid on for another hour, but I do really big batches of 25+ pounds of fat each go. Obvious, watch your batch and once it starts melting and you see a good amount of liquid fat, remove the lid and LEAVE IT OFF for the duration of the rendering process.
Stir every time you walk past the pot. Keep the fat at a good simmer; adjust your heat accordingly. Depending on batch size, this can take anywhere from 3 hours to 10 hours. My giant roasters usually take about 8 hours, give or take.
Once the solids are nice and golden and crispy, check to make sure all the water has evaporated from the fat. To do this, get down to eye level with your roaster or pan and visualize if you see steam coming from the fat. If you see steam, there’s still water and you need to continue cooking it. If you don’t see steam, you can start straining!
Step 3: Straining
If you do not want to purify the fat (like I don’t with trim fat because I don’t care), simply strain the fat through a fine mesh strainer or sieve or coffee filter to remove the solids and add to mason jars or whatever you want to store it in. Allow the fat to cool completely in the jars, uncovered.
Once cool, wipe the jar rim, add a used canning lid, and vacuum seal the lid on. If you don’t own a vacuum sealer, you can “open kettle can” the fat by heating the jars in the over at 225F for 15 minutes and then filling with the hot liquid fat one jar at a time, then add a lid and secure with a screw band and set aside to seal that way. Either works.. I just find vacuum sealing to be less steps.
If you are purifying the suet, strain out the large pieces with a slotted spoon. I don’t worry about running it through a piece of cheesecloth because… that’s why we’re doing this purifying work.
Add the liquid fat to a clean bowl(s). I would recommend a metal bowl or something similar that has some give to it so you can remove the puck after it hardens. Using glass bowls means your gonna have to do some digging and finagling, which is fiiiiiiine but it annoys me.
Add 1-2 quarts of water to the bowl and give it a stir. Even if you’re dry rendering, that phase is over. Add the water. What happens is the fat will float above the water and the impurities will fall below the fat into the water since they’re heavy. Some may still stick to the bottom of the fat, but nowhere near the amount of scraping you’d be doing if you didn’t add the water.
Place the bowl in the fridge or somewhere cold so it can harden.
Step 4: Cleaning the Fat
Once the fat has hardened, pop the puck out of the bowl. Rinse or scrape any impurities stuck to the bottom of the puck, but most should be in the water. Break the fat into pieces and add it back to a stock pot to melt down completely.
Repeat the purifying process by adding the liquid fat to the clean bowl along with 4 cups of water.
Let it harden again.
Repeat the melting and scraping process until you have a puck that no longer has an crusties on the bottom! I recommend doing the cleaning process at minimum 2 times to really deodorize the fat.
Step 5: Final Render
Once the fat has been purified, add the solid fat back to a stock pot and melt down one more time. Bring to a simmer and verify AGAIN that the fat has no steam coming off of it as it simmers. This is just a final check to make sure every bit of water has been removed (even if you dry render there is water in fat) so your precious fat doesn’t mold.
Ladle the fat into clean jars and allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, wipe the jar rim, add a used canning lid, and vacuum seal.
After this final render, this final product is ready to be used to make tallow balm or body creams or whatever you want!
Step 6: Storage
Store jars of properly rendered fat in a cool dark place (below 70 degrees F) and away from direct sunlight for best shelf life. If you’re storing them someplace warmer, I’d recommend not storing them longer than a year on the shelf.
Notes:
The smaller the pieces, the faster the fat will rendered. If you can, ask the butcher to grind the fat for you. You will pay for that, but it does make things easier. I always forget, so I just chop it by hand into big chunks. It’s no big deal.
You do not have to process properly rendered fats in a pressure canner! If all the water has been removed, they are shelf stable. I choose to vacuum seal so I don’t have rings holding lids on my jars with a chance of rusting and to keep moisture out.
And now you know how to render your own beef suet to have your own homemade tallow on the shelf!
Equipment
- slow cooker
- stock pot
- Glass Canning Jars
- canning lids
Ingredients
- Suet or Trim
- Water
Instructions
Prep
- Start by thawing your fat and cutting into small chunks. My meat grinder is pretty wimpy, but grinding it up would be ideal. I don’t have that luxury, so I just hack it up by hand into pretty big chunks. That does make the rendering process take a bit longer, but it’s not that noticeable. Tallow takes considerably longer to render than lard does!
- Add the chunks of fat to your roaster pan, slow cooker insert, or on the stove top (no matter what vessel you use… the instructions will be the same).
- Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Add the lid and turn to medium heat, high on your slow cooker, or about 300F on the electric roaster.
Cooking
- After about 30-60 minutes, the fat should be softening and easier to stir. Stir very well and add the lid back on if the fat hasn’t melted a bit yet. I usually let it heat with the lid on for another hour, but I do really big batches of 25+ pounds of fat each go. Obvious, watch your batch and once it starts melting and you see a good amount of liquid fat, remove the lid and LEAVE IT OFF for the duration of the rendering process.
- Stir every time you walk past the pot. Keep the fat at a good simmer; adjust your heat accordingly. Depending on batch size, this can take anywhere from 3 hours to 10 hours. My giant roasters usually take about 8 hours, give or take.
- Once the solids are nice and golden and crispy, check to make sure all the water has evaporated from the fat. To do this, get down to eye level with your roaster or pan and visualize if you see steam coming from the fat. If you see steam, there’s still water and you need to continue cooking it. If you don’t see steam, you can start straining!
Straining
- If you do not want to purify the fat (like I don’t with trim fat because I don’t care), simply strain the fat through a fine mesh strainer or sieve or coffee filter to remove the solids and add to mason jars or whatever you want to store it in. Allow the fat to cool completely in the jars, uncovered. Once cool, wipe the jar rim, add a used canning lid, and vacuum seal the lid on. If you don’t own a vacuum sealer, you can “open kettle can” the fat by heating the jars in the over at 225F for 15 minutes and then filling with the hot liquid fat one jar at a time, then add a lid and secure with a screw band and set aside to seal that way. Either works.. I just find vacuum sealing to be less steps.
- If you are purifying the suet, strain out the large pieces with a slotted spoon. I don’t worry about running it through a piece of cheesecloth because… that’s why we’re doing this purifying work.
- Add the liquid fat to a clean bowl(s). I would recommend a metal bowl or something similar that has some give to it so you can remove the puck after it hardens. Using glass bowls means your gonna have to do some digging and finagling, which is fiiiiiiine but it annoys me.
- Add 1-2 quarts of water to the bowl and give it a stir. Even if you’re dry rendering, that phase is over. Add the water. What happens is the fat will float above the water and the impurities will fall below the fat into the water since they’re heavy. Some may still stick to the bottom of the fat, but nowhere near the amount of scraping you’d be doing if you didn’t add the water.
- Place the bowl in the fridge or somewhere cold so it can harden.
Cleaning the Fat (Purifying)
- Once the fat has hardened, pop the puck out of the bowl. Rinse or scrape any impurities stuck to the bottom of the puck, but most should be in the water. Break the fat into pieces and add it back to a stock pot to melt down completely.
- Repeat the purifying process by adding the liquid fat to the clean bowl along with 4 cups of water.
- Let it harden again.
- Repeat the melting and scraping process until you have a puck that no longer has an crusties on the bottom! I recommend doing the cleaning process at minimum 2 times to really deodorize the fat.
Final Render (Verifying No Water Content)
- Once the fat has been purified, add the solid fat back to a stock pot and melt down one more time. Bring to a simmer and verify AGAIN that the fat has no steam coming off of it as it simmers. This is just a final check to make sure every bit of water has been removed (even if you dry render there is water in fat) so your precious fat doesn’t mold.
- Ladle the fat into clean jars and allow it to cool completely. Once cooled, wipe the jar rim, add a used canning lid, and vacuum seal.
- After this final render, this final product is ready to be used to make tallow balm or body creams or whatever you want!
Storage
- Store jars of properly rendered fat in a cool dark place (below 70 degrees F) and away from direct sunlight for best shelf life. If you’re storing them someplace warmer, I’d recommend not storing them longer than a year on the shelf.
All of this is exactly how I do it!! I also make sure that the very middle of that puck is rock solid. If it has any give, it’s too soft, and I do it one more time.
That’s another great way to tell it’s rendered properly! Thanks for sharing :)