Beef tallow is proof that the only thing more delicious than controversy is frying potatoes in it. Butchers, TikTok beauty influencers, and a former presidential candidate are among its far-flung fans, but many others—including medical experts—are divided.
However you render it, tallow is versatile. It pops up in vinaigrettes, french fries, body lotions, face moisturizers, soaps, and beyond. But what is beef tallow, exactly? And why does it inspire such heated takes? Here’s everything you need to separate fat from fiction.
What is beef tallow?
Beef tallow is rendered fat from any part of a cow. A butchery byproduct, it’s related to but less locationally specific than suet, which is the fat that surrounds the organs of cattle or lambs.
Like lard, its porky cousin, tallow has a semi-solid consistency at room temperature and creamy, opaque color. You can buy it online or from butchers and specialty food purveyors—or even render it yourself.
That’s what cooks do at Jeju, a Portland, Oregon, restaurant that specializes in whole-animal butchery. They combine the trimmings of steaks and other muscle cuts with the fat that accumulates atop their stocks and bone broth, explains chef-owner Peter Cho. “We take all that fat, filter it, skim it, and fry it off to make nice, clean beef tallow.” Then that tallow gets used for cooking.
How to cook with beef tallow
You can use beef tallow as a one-to-one alternative to an array of cooking oils and fats, including canola, sunflower seed or vegetable oils, melted butter, or ghee. It can grease a skillet, season a griddle or cast-iron pan, or form a flavorful base for stews or sofrito.
At New York City restaurant Due West, cooks use beef tallow to make patty melts. At Jeju, Cho confits steaks in it before reverse-searing them.
But potatoes are arguably tallow’s most dashing dance partner. Because it has a high smoke point, beef tallow is particularly suited to deep-frying. Beef-fat french fries appear on menus at casual pubs and burger joints, as well as at restaurants like Jeju, Hank & Artie’s in Portland, Maine, and Perilla in Chicago, Illinois.
“It does something so special to french fries,” says Andrew Lim, Perilla’s executive chef. “It makes them super crispy on the outside, and just so flavorful and good.” Perilla’s team also uses tallow in a steakhouse vinaigrette and to grease the grates of its tabletop grills to “build flavor and develop a nice sear on steaks,” Lim says.
Like most of us, tallow has limitations in the kitchen. Its distinctly meaty flavor can overpower some dishes. At Perilla, cooks use lard, olive oil, or seed and vegetable oils when making seafood, veggies, and other non-beefy menu items. “Unless you want that flavor, you’re better off using other types of fat,” Lim says.
Is beef tallow good for you?
There are pros and cons to everything in life, and beef tallow is no exception. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., recently sang its praises as an alternative to seed oils for cooking, but many nutritionists see tallow as something of a mixed bag.
