Tallow and Lard - Why you should consider giving it a go!
We always do our best to use as much of the animal as possible and the amazing thing is that there are so many parts that can be used in wonderful ways. One such part is the fat from the animal. We’ve been doing this for ourselves for a few years now and we’ll never go back now!
In this article we will delve into the wonderful world of tallow and lard.
What is the difference between tallow and lard?
Tallow comes from the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats. Lard comes from the fat of pigs. We utilise both as we find them useful for different things. Tallow from cattle does have a more beefy taste (unless using suet) but when using it for cooking, that’s not usually a problem. Lard on the other hand tends to melt into the flavour of whatever you are cooking more so than tallow which is why it’s a popular option for baking as well as cooking. Tallow tends to have a higher smoke point which makes it useful for deep fryers, and we all know how much better the Maccas chips were when they were cooked in tallow rather than vegetable oil!
What about leaf fat and suet?
Leaf fat and suet are the fat that sits around the kidneys and other internal organs of the animal. It pulls away clean from the carcass so doesn’t have pieces of meat attached to it. For this reason, it is a purer form of fat which renders down with little to no meat taste making it ideal for making soaps, skincare products, candles, pastries, pie crusts, and more.
How does it go from fat to tallow or lard?
There are a couple of ways to turn fat into tallow or lard – both are simple. One of the best ways to do this is in a slow cooker but if you don’t have one, you can do it in a pot over the stove – you’ll just have to keep more of an eye on it to avoid it boiling too vigorously.
Dry Render
A dry render is simply melting the fat over a low heat and letting it render slowly until you’ve separated as much of the liquid fat out of the solid fat as possible and in the process separated out the impurities and water. Once rendered, strain the contents through a cheesecloth into jars.
Wet Render
A wet render is much the same as a dry render except you add 3 cups of water and 3 tablespoons of sea salt to the pot with the fat. This may not be necessary but the idea is that the water and salt help to remove more impurities from the fat giving you a purer end result. After you’ve finished with the render, strain the contents of the pot or slow cooker into a metal bowl and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, turn out the solidified product and you’ll find all the impurities and water have separated and can easily be removed. You’ll then just need to melt the solid lard or tallow down again so you can then put it in jars.
If you do multiple renders, it will get increasingly pure with each additional render but it’s important to keep in mind that the more you cook the tallow or lard, the more nutrients you are removing.
A few tips when rendering fat to make tallow or lard
- You want your fat as small as possible to maximise the amount of product you get from the fat. If you have access to a meat grinder, that is ideal. Otherwise, just chop the fat as small as you can before adding to the slow cooker or pot.
- Chopping the fat whilst semi-frozen or at least very cold is much easier than doing it at room temperature because it tends to smear rather than chop when warmer.
- Keep the temperature as low as possible to avoid burning the lard or tallow
- Do not put the lid on the slow cooker or pot – the key is to evaporate water, not put it back in when it condenses on the lid!
- Grass fed beef can sometimes produce a more yellow fat. There’s no problem with it being yellow other than the aesthetics. If you want it to be a whiter product, you may want to render it 3 or 4 times.
- Once you’ve rendered the fat, turn off the heat and allow it to sit and cool for a while so you aren’t handling very hot fat.
- Provided you have rendered your fat properly, you can store your tallow or lard in clean glass jars with screw lids and it will be shelf stable. If you are unsure whether to trust it, you can store it in the fridge instead.
- If you see a liquid sitting on top of your lard/tallow, that means there is still water that needs to be removed – go ahead and render it again.
- If you need to get solid tallow or lard out of a jar, run hot water around the outside of the sealed jar – it will soon become liquid again.
What are the health benefits of eating Tallow or Lard?
Both tallow and lard are nutrient dense rich in vitamins A, D, E, and K which are essential for immune function, skin health and bone health. This is even more true when the fat comes from healthy pasture-raised animals.
Lard is high in oleic acid which can ironically help managed cholesterol (interesting because many doctors would tell you the opposite).
Tallow contains high levels of stearic acid which may lower inflammation and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which has anti-inflammatory properties, supports immune health and can even help with weight management.
Having a higher smoke point than oils makes them more stable at higher temperatures which means they aren’t producing free radicals that can be harmful for your health.
Saturated fats can help slow carbohydrate absorption and even help to protect your brain!
What about using tallow or lard on your skin?
Lard in particular is genetically most similar to our own fat than any other form of moisturiser. For this reason, it is easily absorbed into the skin without feeling oily or greasy.
Tallow is also very similar. Both are a fantastic way to give your skin deep hydration and moisturisation locking in moisture to the skin.
As mentioned in the previous section, lard and tallow both contain vitamins A, D, E, and K which help with skin regeneration, elasticity and general health whilst also being anti-inflammatory and soothing which is especially useful on some skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne.
Again, using tallow from grass fed grass finished beef and lard from pasture-raised pigs only improves the quality and nutrient density.
For these reasons, skincare products and soap made with tallow and lard very popular.
The final takeaway
We encourage you to have a go at making your own tallow or lard. It’s much cheaper than using store-bought oils, easy to do, and lasts a long time on the shelf. It’s also a great way to reduce the waste of processing an animal and maybe improve your health at the same time.