Beef Tallow is a traditional fat that has been used and prized by cultures around the world for thousands of years. Though many homes and restaurants have replaced beef tallow with vegetable oils, beef tallow nonetheless has been a prized cooking ingredient for many generations.
Let’s dive into this amazing traditional fat and learn all about beef tallow benefits!
If you’re learning about traditional foods and an ancestral diet, you may also like:
- Where To Buy Raw Milk
- How To Make Homemade Gummies with Gelatin
- A Week of Easy Nourishing Lunches (WAPF Approved)
Some links may be affiliate links which means I earn a small commission if you choose to shop through my link. I only recommend products I personally use and love!
What is Tallow?
Tallow, in a nutshell, is rendered beef suet. Suet is another word for the fat surrounding the internal organs of an animal. Tallow can also be made from the fat surrounding the muscles of an animal, however the suet found around the internal organs is most nutritious!
Rendering is the process of heating the raw Beef fat at a low temperature until it melts down into a liquid. Then you strain what’s been melted from what’s left in the pot. The liquid that is strained is your tallow!
Tallow can be made from a number of animals – bear, venison, bison, etc – but it is most commonly made from Grass Fed Beef.
It is important to source your fat or your tallow only from Grass Fed/Pastured Raised Beef – as that fat will be the most nutritious and help create a beautiful tallow that is nourishing to your body.
Beef Tallow Uses
For thousands of years, beef tallow has been used as a traditional fat in cooking.
Beef Tallow has also traditionally been used to make soap, body and skin products, as well as candles!
When used in cooking, tallow has a smoke point of 400-420 degrees. This makes it perfect for frying the perfect French fry!
Tallow also contains a lot of skin-healing properties! More on that below.
Ancient cultures really valued tallow for all of it’s benefits and healing properties.
Beef Tallow Benefits
Beef tallow benefits when it comes to nutrition are unparalleled. Tallow is one of (if not THE most) nutrient Dense cooking fat on the planet!
1. Nutrient Dense and Mineral Rich
Beef tallow from pasture raised, healthy cows includes a lot of nutrients and minerals as well as natural inflammatory properties. Some of the vitamins include vitamin A, D, K and E – the fat soluble vitamins.
Vitamin D can be difficult to get enough of and most Americans are deficient. It’s great to have tallow as a source of easily absorbed vitamin D!
The important thing to note is that your tallow really needs to come from healthy, grass fed cows. Cows that have been raised in barns and fed grain for the whole life are not going to have nearly the same amount of nutrients in their tallow.
If you’re confused about how tallow – a saturated fat – could be good for you, this article is very in depth and helpful to understanding how Saturated fats have been so misunderstood.
2. Skin Healing Properties
Tallow is very nourishing to the skin – whether it’s externally applied or internally consumed.
Beef Fat contains omega 7 fatty acids including palmitoleic, palmitic, and stearic acids.
All of these acids are great for skin – they help protect, heal, and improve skin elasticity and collagen production.
Since using tallow on the stretch marks on my belly, I have noticed a dramatic difference in not only the color, but also the depth of my stretch marks. I have very deep stretch marks from my two pregnancies, and I had given up hope of healing them. When I started seeing a difference after just 1 month of applying tallow to them, I couldn’t believe it! My skin is actually healing right before my eyes! I cannot wait to see how the stretch marks look after 6 months of applying the tallow cream.
Shop the tallow cream that I am obsessed with here. I didn’t use tallow on my skin for so long because I was terrified of smelling like beef. But this cream actually smells amazing and sweet and has NO beef smell whatsoever. She also doesn’t use essential oils in her blends but instead uses herbal infused oils – which I LOVE! (Use the code “VICTORIA10” for a 10% off discount!)
3. Tastes Delicious
Another Beef Tallow benefit is that it has a relatively mild flavor when it comes to cooking it! It easily compliments herbs or spices cooked alongside it. As I mentioned above, it has a high smoke point so it’s perfect for frying vegetables or French fries and even deep frying Fried Chicken.
To Sum It Up…
There are a lot of beef tallow benefits, and tallow is the perfect addition for anyone wanting to follow more of Ancestral Diet or follow the guidelines in Nourishing Traditions and Weston A Price Foundation!
Shop:
My favorite tallow skincare
My Ebook How To Find Safe Raw Milk
Nourishing Traditions Cookbook
Hey, I'm Tori!
I'm so glad you're here, sweet mother!
My goal is to inspire you to remember your primal roots & live a WILD life in alignment with nature. On my blog I empower you to use herbs and natural remedies to keep your family healthy, teach you how to eat a nourishing, traditional foods diet, and inspire you to raise your babies consciously and respectfully.
