The steps to render and clean tallow are very easy. I will show you two ways to do it. It is possible to make your own tallow, which adds the most flavor to food. If you want to use it in beauty products or soap, you can take extra steps to make it pure enough. I will show you both methods here today!.
Of course, I had to give credit where credit is due. To learn how to do this myself, I read my homesteading books and watched a few YouTube videos. My favorite blogger/YouTuber for all things tallow-related is Marisa from Bumblebee Apothecary.
Beef tallow is making a comeback! This traditional fat that our ancestors treasured is one of the healthiest fats you can use. Tallow has so many benefits, both for cooking and for DIY skincare recipes.
When you render your own beef tallow at home it retains more nutrients than commercially processed tallow. But homemade tallow can have an undesirable beefy aroma. By purifying tallow after rendering it you can remove any odor. This leaves you with gorgeous, white, odor-free tallow perfect for cooking, skincare, candles, and more!
In this article, I’ll explain step-by-step how to easily purify beef tallow at home. With just a few simple ingredients, you can have beautiful snow-white, nutrient dense tallow with zero beef smell.
Why Purify Beef Tallow?
Freshly rendered beef tallow is liquid when hot and solid at room temperature. It has a rich, yellow color and often a distinct beef aroma. This smell comes from impurities in the fat tissue.
While some beefiness is fine if using tallow just for cooking, most people want odorless tallow for DIY skincare recipes and candles. Purifying refines the tallow to remove impurities and odor, leaving pure white tallow.
Purified tallow has many benefits:
- No beef smell, perfect for skincare products and candles
- Pure white color, attractive for balms, salves, soaps
- Removed impurities so tallow is more shelf stable
- Nutrient density enhanced by removing impurities
- Versatile for any application – cooking, skincare, soap, more
With just a few extra steps after rendering, you can purify your tallow at home Here’s how to do it
Step 1: Render the Raw Tallow
Rendering separates fat from other tissue, melting it down to liquid tallow. Here’s how:
Ingredients:
- Beef fat/suet, preferably leaf fat
- Water
- Salt
Instructions:
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Dice beef fat into small pieces. For faster rendering, grind first if possible.
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Place diced fat in a slow cooker. Add water to cover and 2-3 tbsp salt.
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Cook on low 8-12 hours, until fat is completely melted and you see cracklings in the bottom.
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Strain liquid tallow through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Cheesecloth makes this easier.
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Allow the strained tallow to cool at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight. The tallow will harden into a solid cake with impurities settled on the bottom.
Now it’s ready for purification.
Step 2: Purify the Rendered Tallow
Purifying removes odor, discoloration, and impurities from rendered tallow:
Ingredients:
- Rendered beef tallow
- Water
- Salt
Instructions:
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Remove solid tallow from the bowl, scraping off any sediment from the bottom.
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Cut tallow into chunks and place in a clean slow cooker.
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Add fresh water to cover and 2-3 tbsp salt.
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Heat over low 2-3 hours until melted. Simmer 1 hour.
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Strain again through cheesecloth and cool overnight.
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In the morning, scrape sediment off the bottom.
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Repeat steps 2-6 up to 3 times for maximum purity.
3 rounds of purification produces gorgeous white, odorless tallow!
Storing Your Purified Tallow
Purified tallow has a long shelf life. Store it:
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At room temperature for everyday use. Keeps 6 months.
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Refrigerated up to 3 years.
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Frozen indefinitely.
Melt refined tallow and pour into jars or tins. Make sure no water gets mixed in, as this can cause mold. Add cheesecloth on top to soak up any moisture.
With purified tallow, you can make soothing skincare creams and salves, aromatic candles, and nutritious food!
5 Uses for Purified Tallow
Here are some of my favorite ways to use beautifully refined beef tallow:
1. Cooking and Baking
Fry eggs, make patties, or bake pie crusts with lovely white tallow. It makes food tender and adds great flavor!
2. DIY Skincare
Whip up nourishing lotion bars, balms, or salves for soft skin. Tallow’s vitamins A, D, E, K nourish skin.
3. Soap Making
Purified tallow’s creamy lather makes wonderful handmade soaps! Add essential oils for scent.
4. Candles
For the best natural beeswax candles, use refined tallow as your wax. Its high melt point gives great burn time.
5. Leather and Wood Conditioner
Rub refined tallow into leather boots or cutting boards to condition and protect.
With so many uses for white odor-free tallow, purifying beef fat is a great skill to have!
Now that you know how to render and purify tallow at home, you can skip the store and make the healthiest tallow possible. Give purifying a try, and enjoy how versatile this traditional food and skincare oil can be!
What Type of Fat is Best for Making Tallow?
The best fat is what is called leaf fat. This is the fat that surrounds the animal’s internal organs, mainly the kidneys.
Naturally, grass-fed is best. If you can’t raise your own beef, make sure you buy it from a reputable grass-fed farm.
Why Make Beef Tallow?
When we use more of the animal we worked so hard to raise, we show that their life was worth living. Because you can cook with it, make soap with it, or put it on your skin, you are making sure that nothing goes to waste. I feel like it honors the animal and also brings value to your life as well.
How to Render and Purify Tallow | ODORLESS, WHITE, WET METHOD | Bumblebee Apothecary
How do you make beef tallow?
Rendering suet down to make beef tallow is really simple to do, shelf-stable and I show you how to make it in this video. Beef tallow is rendered down suet or beef fat from around the kidneys, which is cooked down from its natural state, and is allowed to harden such as in a mason jar for a variety of uses.
What is the best fat for rendering tallow?
The best fat is what is called leaf fat. This is the fat that surrounds the animal’s internal organs, mainly the kidneys. Naturally, grass-fed is best. If it is not possible to raise your own beef, make sure you source it from a reputable grass-fed farm. Does Rendering Tallow Stink? Yes, kind of.
Is beef tallow good for skin?
It contains 4% of polyunsaturated fat, 42% of monounsaturated fat and 50% of saturated fat. Tallow is great for the skin as it contains vitamins such as niacin, D, A, K and E. It possesses the conjugated linoleic acid that contains the”,”The Beef tallow is extracted through wet or dry rendering process.