Never Throw Away Your Beef Brisket Fat. Here's What To Do Instead

When you've trimmed your beef brisket and are left with pieces of solid white fat, don't dare even think about throwing them away. That fat is yours to treasure. It's the secret to succulent stir-fries, the key to upgrading your roasted potatoes, and the mystery behind a richly flavored pie crust. It may be what remains behind after you've trimmed brisket, but beef fat goes far and beyond to deliver great flavors.

The key is transforming your leftover beef fat into tallow. Tallow is the liquid gold of cooking oils. There's everything to love about it, from taste augmentation to waste reduction, and making it yourself means you participate in this beautiful process that will transform your cooking days for the better. There are a few ways to do this, but the simplest is to render beef fat on the stovetop.

Place the beef trimmings in a large pot and cook them over medium-high heat for about two to three hours. Patience is key here; the longer you cook the trimmings, the more fat is extracted. By the time it's done, the beef pieces should be swimming in a pool of tallow. Remove the beef pieces and strain the liquid to leave you with pure, unadulterated beef tallow.

The absolute best use for beef tallow is as a cooking oil. Fried eggs will never taste the same after you try them with a hint of beefy essence, and neither will your biscuit pastry. By using rendered beef fat in place of regular cooking oil, you get satisfyingly crispy-edged potatoes that are fluffy in the center and soaked in heavenly beef aromas. And just imagine the result of a tallow roast.

Beef tallow is also ideal for making sausages. If you don't eat pork fat (lard) you can use beef tallow instead. Simply add it to sausage meat for equally juicy and flavorful results. One way to push the flavors of your recipe is to use smoked tallow. If you're preparing smoked brisket, you can render beef fat on the smoker too, and expect an extra flavor depth to your tallow. Any dish you cook with it, be it sauteed vegetables or Yorkshire pudding, will taste miles better.

Beef tallow is also useful beyond the kitchen. Being such a versatile fat with a high melting point of between 104 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit, it has historically been an ingredient for non-toxic candle and soap recipes. Surely, you can never be in want of anything with a jar of beef tallow. If beef brisket is on the menu, thank your lucky stars as you prepare to mine your most valued cooking oil.