My local organic butcher carried the raw suet at around $6.00 a kilogram which I thought was reasonably cost effective. With two kilograms (about 4 pounds for the non metric) in hand and I estimated 20% to 30% wastage I should get enough tallow to last me a few months. Suet is the organ fat from around the kidneys and it is different to muscle fat with a cleaner flavor, once rendered down to tallow it is solid at room temperature, long shelf life and also higher in vitamins. Also there is the claim that the fats are also more balanced especially with grass fed organic at 50% saturated fat.
If you have any old recipe books they will often use tallow in things like pie crusts. I have seen a lot of examples where the word “tallow” is used interchangeably with the word “lard” which is technically referring to rendered pig fat, and “leaf lard” is the equivalent rendered organ fat from the pig. The pig based “lard” is softer than tallow at room temperature and is often used differently in those old school cookbooks that used it as a recipe ingredient.
Making tallow from suet
Ingredients
- 2 kg Suet Kidney fat from grass fed beef idealy organic.
Instructions
- Grind the suet into a paste, I use the meat mincing attachment on my stand mixer2 kg Suet
- Add heat, I put it in the oven for 1.5 hours on 150 degrees Celsius (300 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Once fully melted scoop off the waste floating on the top.
- Pour off the hot liquid into a clean container through a sieve.
- Let this stand at room temperature until cooled
- Break up the hard tallow which will now be on top of liquid that settles out below the fat.
- Melt tallow in the oven again.
- Pour off the hot liquid through a sieve into the final container for storage, I use a Pyrex container with a lid. Alternatively molded it into blocks.
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