Grass-Fed Beef Tallow 1 Pound, Four 4-oz Bars of Hand-Rendered Tallow
This is one pound of hand-rendered grass-fed and grass-finished beef tallow, made from only kidney fat (the best, hardest tallow!), rendered here at Solace Farm, in 4 bars of 4+ ounces each - still easy to use in smaller amounts, but with a slight discount over my individual 4 oz bars.
This is rendered by me, here at Solace Farm Homestead, from our own herd of Scottish Highland cattle as well as from Dayspring Farm, a fellow small, sustainable, regenerative farm nearby raising grass-fed Red Devon cattle, as well as turkeys, chickens, and vegetables.
I wet-render and filter through a coffee filter - the research is scarce, but after almost 20 years of rendering tallow and lard, I feel that wet rendering, or purifying, is better, for several reasons.
First and foremost, purifying tallow definitely and noticeably increases it's shelf life. Within just a few weeks, I will notice issues with dry rendered tallow, whereas the purified tallow - stored properly - will be fine for many weeks if not months. Secondly, the smell - it is noticeably stronger in dry rendered, to the point I get negative remarks. Both of these issues are because dry rendered, quite honestly, still has a surprising amount of organic matter in it. Out of curiosity, I have dry-rendered, then filtered through a coffee filter, then re-melted and done a water boil. The cake of tallow I get off that dry-now-wet-rendered batch (say, 2" thick in a standard stockpot, so maybe 2-3 pounds) still has a patch, 2-4" across, of brown silty residue on the underside that I have to scrape off. That is all particulate matter from the tallow that is NOT tallow, and is what gives it the odor, and shortens it's lifespan. I just imagine taking some of that brown goo and sprinkling "just a bit" in each salve or balm I make - wouldn't that be gross?!?! So I purify!
The main reason I've seen for dry rendering is the nutrient/vitamin content, and quite simply I think that is a misleading argument. Firstly, it doesn't look like there's actually terribly much nutrients in tallow, especially compared to other sources of fat-soluble vitamins. Secondly, they are fat-soluble - they shouldn't be diminished by water, and if they are it shouldn't be by much. So, if you really want to get vitamins A, D, E + K into your body, like a lot of tallow products advertise - put a good dollop of grass-fed heavy whipping cream in your coffee, eat some cheese, drink a glass of grass-fed milk, eat a nice fatty lamb chop or a ribeye, or all of the above. A fraction of one of those is light-years more effective than tallow on your skin at getting nutrients into your body. That's the job of food - but the job of a cooking fat, or a moisturizing body balm/salve, is very different, and tallow does an amazing job at that!!
All this is in no way whatsoever saying tallow and tallow products are not amazing, moisturizing, natural, biologically appropriate skin treatments and cooking fats. They absolutely are!!! But there are other reasons besides the nutrient content for those uses, and a wet-render in my opinion is not going to destroy/neutralize the benefits, and will make any use both smell better and last longer.
I have done it both ways, over many years, and while I prefer wet/purifying, here are the pros and cons to both.
Dry Pros: Beautiful creamy yellow color, faster process (less mess for me), better nutrient content?
Dry Cons: More "beefy" scent, shortened shelf life.
Wet Pros: More pale color (although that varies, and is rarely pure white), "cleaner" product, less "beef" smell, longer shelf life.
Wet Cons: Potentially lower nutrients?, messy production (possibly disastrous blow-ups leading to a tallow-covered kitchen, don't ask I've tried to wipe my memory!), so longer production time.
I pour it into my square-bar soap molds, so the tallow comes in 4-4.5 oz square bars, that I wrap in aluminum foil for shipping. I am trying to avoid single-use plastic, thus the foil, but if you'd prefer I ship it in wax paper, a zipper bag, or something similar I can definitely do that. I render frequently, every 6-10 weeks or so, and everything goes straight in the freezer until I ship it for maximum shelf-life.
This tallow is great for making your own tallow balms, whipped tallow butters or creams, or simply using as a healthy cooking fat. Tallow is a high-heat fat, so it's great for frying and other applications where lower-temp oils may scorch and smoke. I like to use 50/50 lard and tallow for deep-frying - there's nothing like homegrown chicken fingers fried in lard and tallow!
This is one pound of hand-rendered grass-fed and grass-finished beef tallow, made from only kidney fat (the best, hardest tallow!), rendered here at Solace Farm, in 4 bars of 4+ ounces each - still easy to use in smaller amounts, but with a slight discount over my individual 4 oz bars.
This is rendered by me, here at Solace Farm Homestead, from our own herd of Scottish Highland cattle as well as from Dayspring Farm, a fellow small, sustainable, regenerative farm nearby raising grass-fed Red Devon cattle, as well as turkeys, chickens, and vegetables.
I wet-render and filter through a coffee filter - the research is scarce, but after almost 20 years of rendering tallow and lard, I feel that wet rendering, or purifying, is better, for several reasons.
First and foremost, purifying tallow definitely and noticeably increases it's shelf life. Within just a few weeks, I will notice issues with dry rendered tallow, whereas the purified tallow - stored properly - will be fine for many weeks if not months. Secondly, the smell - it is noticeably stronger in dry rendered, to the point I get negative remarks. Both of these issues are because dry rendered, quite honestly, still has a surprising amount of organic matter in it. Out of curiosity, I have dry-rendered, then filtered through a coffee filter, then re-melted and done a water boil. The cake of tallow I get off that dry-now-wet-rendered batch (say, 2" thick in a standard stockpot, so maybe 2-3 pounds) still has a patch, 2-4" across, of brown silty residue on the underside that I have to scrape off. That is all particulate matter from the tallow that is NOT tallow, and is what gives it the odor, and shortens it's lifespan. I just imagine taking some of that brown goo and sprinkling "just a bit" in each salve or balm I make - wouldn't that be gross?!?! So I purify!
The main reason I've seen for dry rendering is the nutrient/vitamin content, and quite simply I think that is a misleading argument. Firstly, it doesn't look like there's actually terribly much nutrients in tallow, especially compared to other sources of fat-soluble vitamins. Secondly, they are fat-soluble - they shouldn't be diminished by water, and if they are it shouldn't be by much. So, if you really want to get vitamins A, D, E + K into your body, like a lot of tallow products advertise - put a good dollop of grass-fed heavy whipping cream in your coffee, eat some cheese, drink a glass of grass-fed milk, eat a nice fatty lamb chop or a ribeye, or all of the above. A fraction of one of those is light-years more effective than tallow on your skin at getting nutrients into your body. That's the job of food - but the job of a cooking fat, or a moisturizing body balm/salve, is very different, and tallow does an amazing job at that!!
All this is in no way whatsoever saying tallow and tallow products are not amazing, moisturizing, natural, biologically appropriate skin treatments and cooking fats. They absolutely are!!! But there are other reasons besides the nutrient content for those uses, and a wet-render in my opinion is not going to destroy/neutralize the benefits, and will make any use both smell better and last longer.
I have done it both ways, over many years, and while I prefer wet/purifying, here are the pros and cons to both.
Dry Pros: Beautiful creamy yellow color, faster process (less mess for me), better nutrient content?
Dry Cons: More "beefy" scent, shortened shelf life.
Wet Pros: More pale color (although that varies, and is rarely pure white), "cleaner" product, less "beef" smell, longer shelf life.
Wet Cons: Potentially lower nutrients?, messy production (possibly disastrous blow-ups leading to a tallow-covered kitchen, don't ask I've tried to wipe my memory!), so longer production time.
I pour it into my square-bar soap molds, so the tallow comes in 4-4.5 oz square bars, that I wrap in aluminum foil for shipping. I am trying to avoid single-use plastic, thus the foil, but if you'd prefer I ship it in wax paper, a zipper bag, or something similar I can definitely do that. I render frequently, every 6-10 weeks or so, and everything goes straight in the freezer until I ship it for maximum shelf-life.
This tallow is great for making your own tallow balms, whipped tallow butters or creams, or simply using as a healthy cooking fat. Tallow is a high-heat fat, so it's great for frying and other applications where lower-temp oils may scorch and smoke. I like to use 50/50 lard and tallow for deep-frying - there's nothing like homegrown chicken fingers fried in lard and tallow!
This is one pound of hand-rendered grass-fed and grass-finished beef tallow, made from only kidney fat (the best, hardest tallow!), rendered here at Solace Farm, in 4 bars of 4+ ounces each - still easy to use in smaller amounts, but with a slight discount over my individual 4 oz bars.
This is rendered by me, here at Solace Farm Homestead, from our own herd of Scottish Highland cattle as well as from Dayspring Farm, a fellow small, sustainable, regenerative farm nearby raising grass-fed Red Devon cattle, as well as turkeys, chickens, and vegetables.
I wet-render and filter through a coffee filter - the research is scarce, but after almost 20 years of rendering tallow and lard, I feel that wet rendering, or purifying, is better, for several reasons.
First and foremost, purifying tallow definitely and noticeably increases it's shelf life. Within just a few weeks, I will notice issues with dry rendered tallow, whereas the purified tallow - stored properly - will be fine for many weeks if not months. Secondly, the smell - it is noticeably stronger in dry rendered, to the point I get negative remarks. Both of these issues are because dry rendered, quite honestly, still has a surprising amount of organic matter in it. Out of curiosity, I have dry-rendered, then filtered through a coffee filter, then re-melted and done a water boil. The cake of tallow I get off that dry-now-wet-rendered batch (say, 2" thick in a standard stockpot, so maybe 2-3 pounds) still has a patch, 2-4" across, of brown silty residue on the underside that I have to scrape off. That is all particulate matter from the tallow that is NOT tallow, and is what gives it the odor, and shortens it's lifespan. I just imagine taking some of that brown goo and sprinkling "just a bit" in each salve or balm I make - wouldn't that be gross?!?! So I purify!
The main reason I've seen for dry rendering is the nutrient/vitamin content, and quite simply I think that is a misleading argument. Firstly, it doesn't look like there's actually terribly much nutrients in tallow, especially compared to other sources of fat-soluble vitamins. Secondly, they are fat-soluble - they shouldn't be diminished by water, and if they are it shouldn't be by much. So, if you really want to get vitamins A, D, E + K into your body, like a lot of tallow products advertise - put a good dollop of grass-fed heavy whipping cream in your coffee, eat some cheese, drink a glass of grass-fed milk, eat a nice fatty lamb chop or a ribeye, or all of the above. A fraction of one of those is light-years more effective than tallow on your skin at getting nutrients into your body. That's the job of food - but the job of a cooking fat, or a moisturizing body balm/salve, is very different, and tallow does an amazing job at that!!
All this is in no way whatsoever saying tallow and tallow products are not amazing, moisturizing, natural, biologically appropriate skin treatments and cooking fats. They absolutely are!!! But there are other reasons besides the nutrient content for those uses, and a wet-render in my opinion is not going to destroy/neutralize the benefits, and will make any use both smell better and last longer.
I have done it both ways, over many years, and while I prefer wet/purifying, here are the pros and cons to both.
Dry Pros: Beautiful creamy yellow color, faster process (less mess for me), better nutrient content?
Dry Cons: More "beefy" scent, shortened shelf life.
Wet Pros: More pale color (although that varies, and is rarely pure white), "cleaner" product, less "beef" smell, longer shelf life.
Wet Cons: Potentially lower nutrients?, messy production (possibly disastrous blow-ups leading to a tallow-covered kitchen, don't ask I've tried to wipe my memory!), so longer production time.
I pour it into my square-bar soap molds, so the tallow comes in 4-4.5 oz square bars, that I wrap in aluminum foil for shipping. I am trying to avoid single-use plastic, thus the foil, but if you'd prefer I ship it in wax paper, a zipper bag, or something similar I can definitely do that. I render frequently, every 6-10 weeks or so, and everything goes straight in the freezer until I ship it for maximum shelf-life.
This tallow is great for making your own tallow balms, whipped tallow butters or creams, or simply using as a healthy cooking fat. Tallow is a high-heat fat, so it's great for frying and other applications where lower-temp oils may scorch and smoke. I like to use 50/50 lard and tallow for deep-frying - there's nothing like homegrown chicken fingers fried in lard and tallow!