How to Render Tallow or Lard… The Simple Way!

We have always butchered our own animals for meat. Having a freezer full of meat is such a blessing to be able to make all kinds of meals from. But learning how to render tallow or lard from the the animals was a big step for me.

I don’t want to waste parts of the animal that we butcher. God gave us the whole animal and I believe He wants us to use it all!

But up until 5 years ago there were many parts of the animal that I told the butcher shop to just discard. Things like the liver, tongue, and heart I never wanted. Now you will find me adding dehydrating my beef liver to smoothies and other dishes.

My how things can change over time. 

Animal fats were another part I never asked for. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I didn’t want it. 

Fast forward from 5 years ago and I started learning about the value in every part of the animal. I no longer see an animal only for its meat. There are so many useful parts besides just the meat. 

Let’s walk through how to render tallow, which is made from the beef fat, to be able to use for cooking or even in beauty products and soaps! You can use this same process for rendering lard too, which is the pig fat. 

Health Benefits of tallow.

I cook with beef tallow often, to sautéed up vegetables or even to pan grill a steak. I love to cook with butter, so you won’t see me making the change to completely cooking with beef tallow, however cooking with tallow is a wonderful alternative and there are just certain foods I love to use it for.

It saves me money every time I am throwing a dollop of tallow in the pan instead of butter.

Tallow is a source of conjugated-linoleic acid which is a fatty acid that studies have shown to reduce health concerns such as high blood pressure and increase fat loss (source). Contrary to what we all have been taught, using real animal fats such as butter and tallow are not hindering our health they are actually helping it. 

Tallow, also called beef suet,  is full of vitamins A, D, E, K, and B12. I love finding products that have so many purposes but are also healthy for you. 

Since it is full of vitamins, tallow is great to use for your skin care products. I like to make tallow butter with it or even use it in soap. Hopefully I will have a recipe for both of those coming out soon!

Beef tallow has a high smoke point. 

Beef tallow has a high smoke point of around 420 degrees. This makes it better then any kind of vegetable oils to fry things up. Not to mention it is way healthier to use.

We love to fry zucchini, fish, chicken, or even potatoes or french fries in beef tallow. 

Beef tallow is much healthier to do deep frying in than some of the cheaper vegetable oils most restaurants fry with. If I don’t have beef tallow rendered, which is rare, I will use avocado oil. 

Rendering tallow or lard is not hard but is time consuming. The great part is you can do a large batch and it stores so well for months and months to come.

Depending on how much you are rendering down at one time, will determine how long it will take. I always say plan on 3-6 hours. So, if you don’t have that much time to keep a watchful eye on the fat as it is rendering, then don’t start this project until you do!

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What special equipment do I need?

The only supplies you need to render down tallow is beef fat and a sturdy bottomed pot. I love to use my dutch oven for this project because it has tall sides and it seasons the pot as it goes!

Any cast iron or heavy bottomed pot will do. 

There are different ways to render tallow or lard. I have also done it in the crockpot or slow cooker with a cup of water added. That is great because you don’t have to watch it so closely. It just kind of does it’s thing.

The reason I prefer to do it in a heavy bottom pot on the stove is because the purpose of rendering down is to remove all impurities and liquid. I have a hard time adding water to it, when that’s what I am trying to remove. 

The times I have also done it in the crock pot, it never came out super white. It was always a bit yellow which tells me it didn’t all come out. Was it because I added water? I don’t know, but for that reason I just prefer to do it on my stove.

Ingredients:

• Raw beef fat or Pig leaf fat

How to render tallow or lard:

1. My butcher runs the fat through a meat grinder so I have grated small pieces already when I get it back. If your butcher doesn’t do that you will want to take the fat and cut it into small chunks or small strips. It is easiest to do this when it is still slightly frozen. If your fat is already ground, make sure to thaw it out before starting the rendering process. If you don’t butcher your own animals, but would like to render your own tallow or lard call your local butcher shop. They likely have plenty that customers don’t take to either give away or sell for cheap to you.
2. Place your pot on the stove top and turn it on low heat. I have an electric stove and turn my stove onto 2. You will not change this setting for the entire process. You want to render your tallow or lard low and slow. 
3. Add a handful of your fat to the pot. Let it start to melt stirring often so it doesn’t burn or stick. You want a good amount of oil to come out and coat the bottom of the pan or pot. 
4. After you have a good amount of oil coating the whole pot, you can add the rest of your fat in. Depending on the size of your pot will depend on how much will fit. 
5. At this point you will just stir it pretty regularly and not walk away until the fat starts to render down. Once you have a good amount of fat rendered and the risk of it burning or scorching has passed, you don’t have to stir or watch it so closely. 
6. Let it continue to render on the stove for quite a few hours, checking and stirring occasionally. Resist the urge to turn your heat up. Keep the heat at low or 2 the entire process. You will see lots of bubbles and boiling happening.
7. You know your tallow or lard is done rendering when you no longer see the bubbles even when you stir it. The will take several hours. 

Straining your tallow or lard:

1. Once your tallow or lard is no longer bubbling, it is time to strain it through a fine-mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter or a piece of cheesecloth.
2. First take a slotted spoon and remove all the fat piece and place them on a plate with a paper towel. You can even salt these and eat as a treat if you like. We don’t like them so we just discard them once they are cool.
3. I set a strainer with the cheese cloth over a large bowl and strain my rendered tallow or lard through it. If I don’t feel like I got all the particles, sometimes I strain it for a second time. 
4. Now you can fill a mason jar with the liquid fat to store. I store them in quart size jars. I use a wide mouth funnel with a piece of cheese cloth inside to catch any bits of meat of fat I missed. Fill each jar and immediately put a ring and a lid on. You want your jars to be in an airtight container. 
5. Let them sit on your counter to completely cool. The hot oil will be yellowish when it is a liquid but will cool white, if all the liquid and impurities came out successfully during the rendering process. 
6. Once your jars are cool, you can place your tallow or lard  on your shelf for months. The lids will seal down from the hot oil and since there is no longer liquid in the oil, it is shelf stable in a cool dark place. Once I crack open a jar, I do keep it in the fridge since I am constantly grabbing some out and don’t want any impurities to contaminate it. It does get hard in the fridge but I feel safer doing it that way. 

Troubleshooting & FAQ:

​When I first learned how to render tallow or lard I was a bit nervous. I had never done anything like this before and I didn’t want to mess anything up. But it really is quite simple! Once your rendered fat is on your shelf you will be so thankful you have that to pull from.

1. My tallow or lard didn’t cool white.

​The most common question or problem is that the lard or tallow didn’t cool white, it stayed yellow. The reason this happened is all the impurities and water didn’t come out of it. Your tallow or lard is not bad and you can still use it. However, I would keep it in the fridge and it isn’t something you would want to put in skincare products or when baking a pie.

To avoid this the next time, make sure you see absolutely no bubbles even when you are stirring the lard or tallow. The heat setting should have never moved from “2” during the entire process and you should not see one bubble anywhere. 

​Be patient, this could take hours. 

2. My tallow is incredibly hard to get out after cooled.

Tallow cools a lot harder then lard. If you store it in the fridge, like I do, you literally have to chip away at the hard fat to get it out of the glass jars when ready to use. There is another option if you don’t want to have to worry about this. 

You can store your rendered tallow in silicon mold bars or let it cool in a baking dish lined with parchment paper. Then you can easily slice away what you need. Once they are cooled in the molds, pop them out and store in any storage container that is airtight.

3. Can I freeze my tallow?

Yes, you can! Tallow or lard will keep for a long time in the fridge, but if you are looking for an even longer shelf life you can freeze it!

Just take it out and let it defrost in the fridge slowly before you are ready to use it. 

4. Can I bake with tallow or only with lard?

Personally, I wouldn’t bake a pie with my finished tallow only with lard. Tallow still has a slight odor even when you have rendered it down all the way. Since that isn’t exactly what I am looking for in my pies, I always use it solely for cooking or beauty products. 

5. It’s been going for hours and the bubbles aren’t going away, should I turn up the heat?

No! Do not turn up your heat even if it has been hours. Trust me it is rendering everything out, it is just taking a long time.

The rule of thumb when rendering lard or tallow is to let it go low and slow. If you go too hot too fast it won’t get everything out. The cooking process takes time and everyone’s length of time is different depending on much impurities are in their fat. 

Making the switch to cooking with healthy animal fats has been one of the best things I have done for our health.