The Fast Food Restaurant That Still Uses Beef Tallow For Its Fries

Beef tallow is a flavorful, golden-hued cooking fat rendered from the tough suet around the steer's kidneys. That real beef fat makeup gives tallow a rich, savory taste which, coupled with its naturally high smoke point, makes beef tallow a versatile cooking fat for preparing a wide range of foods including (you guessed it) fries. Beef tallow is infamously slow to render, but to craft fries that sweep fast food industry competitors, we think it's well worth the extra effort. 

Buffalo Wild Wings may be known for its iconic lineup of sauces, but here at Tasting Table, we're all about the restaurant's fries — which are still cooked in beef tallow. The intel comes from the company's official allergen and preparation guide, which notes that its fries are "fried in beef shortening." Pricey steakhouses often cook their meats and veggie dishes in beef tallow for rich, savory depth. And, so does this fast food chain, and the ingredient can make all the difference for multidimensional fries.

Tasting Table rounded up eight fast food fries that aren't what they used to be, and B-Dubs was nowhere to be found on the list. Happily, other modern snack brands are also on B-Dub's savory wavelength, like Rosie's and Beefy's Own chips, which crisp up their potato chips in beef tallow. If it isn't broke, don't fix it — and Buffalo Wild Wings is putting this traditional cooking fat to good, flavorful use to level up its fast food fry game.

At home, we use beef tallow to build a savory roux. Meanwhile, other fast food restaurants are cooking their fries in far less-appetizing-sounding fats. On its official website, McDonald's says it fries its potatoes in "an oil blend that contains beef flavoring." (If you thought Mickey D's fries were vegetarian, think again). The company also uses hydrogenated soybean oil, corn oil, and soybean oil, as well as wheat and milk derivatives.

It's worth pointing out that Buffalo Wild Wings uses the word "shortening" instead of "tallow" on its info sheet. Tallow is essentially the same thing as shortening. However, there are some differences. In addition to tallow being softer at room temperature while shortening is more solid, tallow is a fat that is always rendered from an animal while shortening can come from other sources like plants. Tallow is also typically used in savory applications as shortening is primarily utilized in baking. That said, when it comes to Buffalo Wild Wings, the brand specifies that it does not use a plant-based or other type of fat, instead calling on "beef shortening."