The Best Time To Use Beef Tallow When Cooking
Beef tallow might not ring a bell like other cooking fats do, but the ingredient is a surefire way to improve an array of home-cooked foods. You can add a dollop to a pan-seared steak or even level up frozen fries with beef tallow – and that's just the beginning. With all of the ways you can use this flavorful fat, it's essential to know when to use it, especially when compared to more common options like butter, ghee, or olive oil.
"They all serve the same purpose as a medium for cooking, which can add flavor, improve texture and increase moisture, but they have different smoke points," explains David Burke, one of the celebrity chefs representing this year's US Open's Flavors of the Open presented by DOBEL. "Beef tallow is very high, so it's great for frying, sautéing and searing. Especially when cooking foods that will benefit from its beefy flavor."
In fact, beef tallow's smoke point is around 400 degrees Fahrenheit, like canola and vegetable oils. That rather high temperature means some of the best uses for beef tallow include sautéing, searing, and frying.
Where to find beef tallow, and dishes to use it in
If beef tallow isn't already a staple ingredient in your kitchen, then you might not know where to secure it. Luckily, you have two options. The first choice is to buy a store-bought jar of beef tallow. It might not be as easy to find as butter, but it's sold in a variety of places, including on Amazon and some specialty grocery stores. The second option is to render beef tallow at home. All this requires is cooking a fatty cut of beef until the fat seeps out into the pan. Then you remove the fat from the pan, strain it, and combine it with herbs or spices to improve its flavor if you wish.
Once your beef tallow is purchased or rendered, add it to the pan from the start, just like you would any other cooking fat. It gives savory flavor to a batch of roasted root vegetables, and can be used to deep fry french fries or onion rings if you have enough on hand. Beef tallow is also an easy way to bring out the rich flavor of a reverse sear steak or your next sheet pan steak dinner. Either way, your beef tallow should last up to a year in the fridge, so you have plenty of time to infuse many dishes with its flavor.