Tallow

Tallow is rendered beef fat, and it was the frying fat of every kitchen and every fast-food chain until the 1990s, when it was swapped for seed oils on the strength of a hypothesis that has not survived. It is the fat the 50 Man Foods roast potatoes in.

It is stable at high heat, tastes of beef and costs almost nothing when you render it yourself from suet.

  • The frying and roasting fat
  • 1 recipe
  • Animal fat
  • Updated Sep 2026

What it supplies

Nutrient · per 100 g (about 7 tablespoons) Amount % DV Relative amount
Fat 100 g 128%
Saturated fat 50 g 250%
Monounsaturated fat 42 g 0%
Polyunsaturated fat 4 g 0%
Vitamin E 2.7 mg 18%

Source: USDA FoodData Central.Percent Daily Values are based on adult reference intakes. The bars stop at 100%; the numbers do not.

Why it works

Frying fat is the biggest single source of polyunsaturated fat in a modern diet, and heated polyunsaturated fat breaks down into aldehydes that are toxic in their own right. Tallow, being mostly saturated and monounsaturated, does not. Its smoke point sits around 200–250°C, above anything a home pan reaches.

The fat the body stores mirrors the fat it eats. Years of seed oil raise the linoleic acid in fat tissue from 5% to over 20%; switching the frying fat back is how that slowly reverses.

How much, how often

  • As needed

    The frying and roasting fat

    Replaces seed oil in the pan; there is no dose beyond what the food needs.

  • Render your own

    From suet, on the lowest heat

    Two to three hours; strain into jars; keeps a year in the fridge.

How to buy and prepare it

Grass-fed tallow from a butcher or rendered at home from suet — the hard fat around the kidneys — which any butcher sells cheaply or gives away. Jarred tallow should list one ingredient. Avoid blended shortenings that add palm or vegetable oil.

Colour ranges from white to pale yellow; yellow is the carotene of pasture.

To render: chop suet small, cover with an inch of water in a heavy pot, simmer on the lowest heat for two to three hours until the fat has melted and the water has cooked off, then strain through cloth into jars. For cooking: parboiled potatoes into a tray of hot tallow at 220°C; steaks seared in it; eggs fried in it.

Rendered tallow keeps a month at room temperature in a sealed jar, a year refrigerated and longer frozen. Used frying tallow can be strained and reused several times.

Recipes that use it

In these guides

Questions

Is tallow healthier than olive oil?
For frying, yes: it is more stable at heat. Extra-virgin olive oil is a fine cold fat and a fair cooking fat, but it is more expensive and much of what is sold is adulterated. Tallow is the honest choice for the pan.
Won't the saturated fat hurt my heart?
Tallow's main saturated fat is stearic acid, which is neutral on LDL. The trials replacing animal fat with seed oil did not reduce deaths, and some increased them. Choose the fat your grandparents fried in.
Tallow, lard or butter?
Tallow for high heat, butter for flavour and medium heat, lard where you can find pastured pork fat. Any of the three beats a bottle of seed oil.