BEEF TALLOW – SO GOOD!
Tallow is rendered beef fat, and much like pork lard, tallow is made from the fat that surrounds the kidneys of cattle. Grass-fed beef tallow is prized for its mild beefy flavor and the many uses both in and outside of the kitchen. Cocavo’s organic grass fed beef tallow is rendered from organically farmed, 100% grass fed NZ beef. The end result is a beautiful golden hued grass fed beef tallow.
For most of human existence, before the introduction of hydrogenated seed oils like cheap soy bean oil & “vegetable” oil in the early 1900’s and even up until the 1960s when “vegetable oils” were deemed the “healthy” option, natural animal fats were the norm for cooking and baking for people all over the world.
Cooking with Tallow
Tallow is used for roasting and frying. You could use tallow for baking if you want to impart beef notes or earthiness into the baked good.
Roasting with beef tallow creates a crispy outside and moist inside of just about anything you put it on. Tallow roasted vegetables and potatoes are simple dishes made decadent with the addition of a little grass fed beef tallow.
Frying with tallow is possibly the best use of beef fat. Tallow has a smoke point of 215ºC (450 F) which is why tallow lends itself well to high heat cooking like frying.
In the past decades, they have greatly fallen out of popularity due to much controversy. Primarily tallow and lard were the go-to cooking fats, even McDonald’s used tallow for deep frying their fries until switching to the cheaper option of soy/corn based oil after these agricultural industries were heavily subsidized by government funding.
Without taking you too deep down the rabbit hole of political food narratives I will say there is little scientific evidence linking animal fats or eggs for that matter to heart disease or clogged arteries. Besides their higher caloric value, I see saturated fats as the most natural and beneficial types of fat for consumption. Like any oil or fat, we always recommend using them in moderation.
These natural fats including butter are what my Mother & Grandmother cooked with and what I was bought up to cook with and have been eating for most of my life. They are great for frying, searing, baking, and making roux. Lard and tallow have a high smoking point and lots of flavor. Many supermarkets do not carry prepared tallow but it does exist, you just have to know where – this is where Cocavo now has you covered.
Beef tallow is healthy
Grass fed beef tallow isn’t just flavorful and a great local option for high-heat cooking, it’s also a healthy option. Tallow contains linoleic acid which is considered a natural anti-inflammatory. Grass-fed beef tallow is rich in vitamin A and vitamin D. Because our organic grass fed beef tallow comes from cows raised right here in New Zealand, they get lot’s of Kiwi sunshine creating vitamin D which is stored in fat.
How to store tallow
Tallow is shelf stable so no need to refrigerate, just keep it in an airtight container like a mason jar. You can keep grass fed tallow on the kitchen counter for a year. It’s easy to scoop at room temperature, and hardens in the refrigerator.
Enjoy cooking with Cocavo tallow made from grass fed, organically farmed NZ beef leaf fat in roasting and frying. The earthy taste of beef tallow is our favorite fat to cook with!
