Dean
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TallowRendering beef suet is a wonderful way to add a heavenly smell to any kitchen!
Tallow can (and should) replace all cooking oil, IMHO.
I get whatever beef "trimmings" from the grocery store for FREE! Once you get them, you have to cut them into chunks (about the size of dice). While doing this slicing of this fat, you must remove any meat that is present. Unless you are quite lucky, usually almost half of the fat will have to be "discarded", cuz it will have a lot of meat attached. You want as pure a fat as you can get to render. Of course, if you have any four legged furry friends, you won't have to worry about this wonderful stuff going to waste, since you can feed it to them! 
Once you get your mound of dice-sized fat chunks, you can put the whole lot (up to about four pounds) into a large pot and set it on the stove top (uncovered). You want to turn the heat as absolutely low as you can. This fat is going to take several hours to render completely down to liquid gold! And, you will need to stir (with a wooden spoon), this pot of melting fat quite often (about every 30 min), so it won't stick to the pan.
Once you have a nice pot of liquid gold, you can then strain the cracklin's out using a strainer. Then, you will want to put cheese cloth over some pint-size jars (use large rubber bands to hold the cheese cloth in place), and pour this stuff into the jars for storage. Seal well, and wait to cool. Keep one in the cupboard to use, and one in the fridge. The rest should go into the freezer. This tallow will keep for a LONG time. You will most certainly use it up before it has a chance to go bad. Even the one in the cupboard should keep for a couple months. When this fat was rendered, the water was rendered ("steamed") out of it, which leaves the fat in a state where it is preserved.
The tallow in the cupboard (at room temp) is going to resemble Crisco. There is nothing better to cook with. It will take really high heat, and nothing will stick to your pans. It will not taint the taste of food, and the saturated fat of beef can't be beat! In fact, you NEED this fat! The RDA is "over the top" for this nutrient dense food! 
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bleublonde
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Re: Tallow | PaleoDeano wrote: |
Tallow can (and should) replace all cooking oil, IMHO.
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Since when is your opinion humble? 
Seriously, though, thanks for posting this. I have some store-bought lard that I've been using. It has BHA and BHT in it. I've read up, and they don't sound like the worst preservatives, but they're preservatives nonetheless. Animal fat is surprisingly hard for me to find. I think I will make the effort, though. Sounds well worth it!
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Dustyboy
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| Quote: | CONFIRMED TROLL
Short a few marbles. |
Umm what does that mean? Also I tried this this weekend and I don't know if left it on the stove too long but it stinks and I don't want to eat it. The heat was down real low but is it possible that I burned it?
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kallyn
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I made tallow once and I haaaaated the smell. It made me gag.
Maybe we both were just unlucky enough to use fat that had gone bad? Mine had been in the freezer for a really long time. I now have an aversion to the smell though. 
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Dustyboy
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Mine was extremely fresh and was cut off of rib eyes soooo your guess is as good as mine. And not to mention it was really hard and time consuming. I am want to make pemmican. Can you make with some other store bought substance?
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Dustyboy
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Plus I feel like a hippy telling my butcher that I need fat scraps to make tallow No offense hippies, peace.
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Glennart
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| kallyn wrote: | I made tallow once and I haaaaated the smell. It made me gag.
Maybe we both were just unlucky enough to use fat that had gone bad? Mine had been in the freezer for a really long time. I now have an aversion to the smell though. |
Personally I have no problem with the smell. But my family can't stand it when I render fat, especially my "pescetarian" older brother complains alot. He is probably just jealous of my delicious lard... 
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Dustyboy
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Glennart, what do you use lard for? Can you use it to make pemmican? The only grease I eat currently is bacon grease, I use it to fry my eggs in the morning.
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adwred
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Is the bacon you eat nitrate/nitrite- and additive-free, dusty? If not, I'd think twice about using it exclusively as your fat.  Bacon is not something I'd eat daily. I don't even eat it weekly.
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Dustyboy
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I am running out of foods that I can eat. So far I am not experiencing any adverse reactions that I can tell. I read on one post that another person eating nitrate free bacon started having problems with his gums. So I am a little confused, I need things that I can eat on a daily basis. If I can find nitrate free bacon is that something I can eat all of the time, if so I will give it a shot.
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Dustyboy
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Also it is not my only fat, I eat a lot of eggs and fatty cuts of meat. I am down to almost exclusively water and maybe one cup of coffee.
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kallyn
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Dusty, you can definitely use lard to make pemmican. I've made it that way before. I asked for pig fat scraps from the butcher's counter and I got them for free. When I rendered the lard it smelled SO MUCH better than when I rendered the tallow.
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adwred
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I never make tallow just for tallow. I always end up with plenty of rendered fat from making stock from bones and carcasses, so I never need to make extra rendered fat, it seems! And the fat skimmed from stock always seems to taste really good. It's probably LOADED with natural free-glutamates.  I end up using butter, duck fat and chicken fat for most of my fat.  Occasionally I have beef fat leftover, too. I freeze it all in little freezable mason jars and I always have loads.
Now that they've started adding antioxidants to tenderflake lard, here in Canada, I no longer use it.  Shame - it was really convenient and also flavourless, so very low in amines and glutamates. I never reacted to it.
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Dustyboy
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What do you fry your eggs in? I tried butter and It just was not the same. What is you opinion of sausage maybe I could trade the bacon for sausage. 
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adwred
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No, sausage is full of crap, too, unless you make it yourself.
What do you mean butter isn't the same?! Damn right it's not the same - it's better!!
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Glennart
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| Dustyboy wrote: | | Glennart, what do you use lard for? Can you use it to make pemmican? The only grease I eat currently is bacon grease, I use it to fry my eggs in the morning. |
I fry in it and smear it on my meat for extra fat, sometimes like a dip. "Normal" people would barf at the way I eat.
I render all kinds of fat I can get, beef, lamb, pork, goose, chicken are all great!
I would use beef tallow for pemmican, it is more stable and less likely to go bad if you want to keep your pemmican in room temp. (Since it is supposed to be a travel food, after all)
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Dustyboy
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Thanks Glennart, I will try and work some lard into my diet.
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Dustyboy
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No bacon, no sausage hunh. You ever just want to put a gun in your mouth  O.k. riddle me this, if butter is better why do I hear so much talk on hear about cutting dairy intake? I am trying here, I am really trying.
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adwred
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Well what are you talkin about, here? Health or taste? I was talking about taste, because you said butter 'wasn't the same'. I assumed you were talking about the flavour. Personally, I think the taste of butter with eggs is unmatched, but that might just be me! Bacon fat is delicious - don't get me wrong. I just think butter is more delicious and a better match.
As for health, butter is much healthier than bacon fat riddled with preservatives, sugar, nitrates and salt. Maybe I'm too harsh. 
About limiting dairy, that is a personal choice, depending on how you tolerate dairy. I can't really answer that for you. If you have a sensitivity to dairy, then obviously bacon fat is a better choice.
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Dustyboy
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I am not sensitive to either quite honestly, I am just a boring eater and I am looking for things that I can eat every day, I do not need variety, I need easy to fix and consistency. If that means nitrate free bacon so be it, if it means butter fried eggs o.k. I can deal with that.
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adwred
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If you prefer bacon and like the taste, I'd say go for nitrate-free bacon. Also, you might want to vary it with butter, every once in a while, just for a change and see and compare your results, as I think that bacon is a bit pricey.
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adwred
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And there's always my favourite: fried or roasted pork belly! That's the same cut of meat as bacon, but un-cured and un-smoked. It doesn't even need salt, it's so delicious!
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Dustyboy
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I have heard you mention this a couple of times and I am going to try it. I am guessing that you fry it as you would bacon. I will check the recipe section for roasting. 
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Puma
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That's odd, tallow never smells weird for me. I just cut up some suet and stick it in an oven at 250 degrees for a couple hours. No weird smells or tastes with bison or beef suet, although I prefer the beef tallow more.
I asked Bear about using lard with pemmican and he didn't recommend it. I've never tried it before though.
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adwred
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The Bear is kind of against pork, though, IIRC, so I'm not surprised he didn't recommend lard.
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Carnation
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| Quote: | | No bacon, no sausage hunh. You ever just want to put a gun in your mouth |
I'd say that if enjoying your bacon and sausage help you make the transition, then go ahead and have some, and worry about the rest later.
I can't remember where you're from, but I know we can get nitrite free bacon at the super target around here. And spicing your own sausage is really easy, especially if you make a big batch and freeze some.
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Dustyboy
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I am from Arkansas (I wear shoes, hate country music and I don't sleep with my cousin) We have some very good butcher shops around here I should be able to get some untainted meat. I had a an omelet this morning with no bacon or sausage and I am still alive so I think I will take a couple days break from it and buy some good stuff this weekend.
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Carnation
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| Quote: | | (I wear shoes, hate country music and I don't sleep with my cousin) |
Darn! Then we have nothing in common except carnivory.
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Dustyboy
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Ahhhhh, the south you gotta love us. We are like the Jerry Sringer show of the nation, people look at us and think "hey my life is not so bad after all."
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Dustyboy
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So as to not come off as a self loathing southerner I must say I have been all around and I would not live any where else. Despite all of the cowboy hat wearing, tobacco chewing, Nascar fans I have to endure on a daily basis it is a great area to live. Especially if you love meth, nearly a week goes by that some redneck does not nearly kill every damn person in the tailor park trying to cook him some meth. I do, I love it here and boy oh boy do we love Larry the Cable guy, is'nt he just the best, why just the though of how wonderful he must smell in his cut off T-shirts just make life worth while here in the south.
Have you ever met someone with the words low life tattooed on their arm? Guess what gang, I have. Quite the specimen of southern man I might add too. With all the spam and Treat (generic spam for those who cannot afford to but name brand spam) that I have seen eaten in my life time it is a wonder I can eat meat at all.
I am going to go take a shower, I feel dirty all of the sudden.
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Dustyboy
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What? is no one amused? Too many Nascar fans? Relatives of Larry? O.k o.k. we all have our flaws but if you can't laugh at yourself from time to time what good is life. Here let me try this.
Boy I sure love eating animals, and vegetables suck. (see look I am back on topic) I am not good at making tallow, and I am glad the South lost the war, DOUGH!! I mean uhhhhh, I wonder what dog meat tastes like. Anyone tried it, on purpose I mean, not like as the result of a trick or anything. 
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adwred
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Sorry, Dusty, I didn't see the first one.
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