Why should I cook with beef tallow?

We get this question often, so we have put together a quick reference guide for this versatile liquid gold!

Excellent for high-heat cooking. Tallow is rich in saturated and monounsaturated fats, which makes it relatively stable when heated. It works especially well for frying, roasting, searing, and sautéing. Tallow’s smoke point is roughly 400 – 420°F

Makes food taste better. It gives potatoes, vegetables, eggs, burgers, steaks, and fried foods a savory richness without necessarily making everything taste strongly like beef.

Fantastic for frying. French fries and fried potatoes cooked in beef tallow get exceptionally crisp on the outside while staying tender inside. Historically, tallow was commonly used for commercial frying before vegetable oils became dominant.

Simple ingredients. Properly rendered beef tallow can essentially be a single-ingredient cooking fat: beef fat. That's attractive to people trying to simplify their pantry or avoid highly refined seed oils.

Long-lasting and economical. Rendered tallow stores well, and using beef fat turns something that might otherwise have little value into a useful kitchen staple.

Fits nose-to-tail cooking. This may be the most compelling story behind tallow: using the fat honors more of the animal rather than treating it as waste.

It's a traditional, minimally processed cooking fat that performs beautifully in the kitchen and makes use of more of the animal.

Smoke Point for Comparison:

How can I use tallow in my kitchen?

Tallow is surprisingly easy to use. A good rule is: anywhere you'd normally reach for butter or cooking oil, consider whether tallow would work instead.

• Roast vegetables: Toss potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, squash, or onions with melted tallow, salt, and pepper before roasting.
• Make incredible potatoes: Use it for breakfast potatoes, hash browns, home fries, or oven fries. This is probably the easiest introduction to tallow.
• Fry eggs: Add a teaspoon to your skillet instead of butter or oil. Especially good for crispy-edged fried eggs.
• Sear a steak: Add a small spoonful to a hot cast-iron skillet before searing steaks or pork chops.
• Cook burgers: A little tallow in the skillet or on a griddle gives burgers a great crust.
• Sauté vegetables: Use it for onions, mushrooms, green beans, cabbage, zucchini, or greens.
• Make popcorn: Melt tallow in a heavy pot and use it in place of your usual popcorn oil. Finish with salt.
• Make grilled cheese: Spread a thin layer on the outside of the bread instead of butter for an extra-crispy crust.
• Season cast iron: After cleaning, rub an extremely thin layer of tallow over your cast-iron cookware.
• Make gravy: Use tallow as the fat when making a roux—tallow + flour + broth makes an excellent beef gravy.
• Deep-fry: Tallow is particularly good for French fries, chicken, onion rings, and other fried foods because it handles frying temperatures well.
• Use it on the grill: Melt tallow and brush a little onto vegetables, potatoes, or meat before grilling.