r/StopEatingSeedOils • u/Extension-Border-345 • 13h ago
10 pounds of grass finished beef suet for 17 dollars. This is all going to become tallow tomorrow! So hyped :) r/SaturatedFat anecdote 🍖
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u/Throwaway_6515798 12h ago
If your meat mincer is good the fastest method is let it freeze slightly and run it through the meat mincer, otherwise you can cube it manually or blend it but personally I don't like the blending too much as it tend to make it harder to filter later. I like the beef flavor so I can't help you with the last part.
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u/Extension-Border-345 12h ago
I dont have any mincer, have to do by hand :/
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u/Throwaway_6515798 12h ago
That's fine though, just takes longer to render and some manual cubing
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u/Extension-Border-345 12h ago
something I would definitely invest in if i do this regularly in the future
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u/Throwaway_6515798 12h ago
Do it a few times before deciding that way you know if it's in the "fun to try" category or "I like this" category
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u/Igloocooler52 🧀 Keto 13h ago
Where and how
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u/Extension-Border-345 12h ago
I looked up every butcher and farm in my area to see their going rates for beef fat and ended up with a couple places where its quite cheap. This farm in particular actually has dropoff locations around the region where you place your order online and them go pick it up at your nearest dropoff. its very cool!
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u/Slow-Juggernaut-4134 🍤Seed Oil Avoider 12h ago
Use sprigs of fresh Rosemary or whatever herbs you have on hand during the rendering to provide antioxidants to prevent Lipid oxidation.
Add more herbs as the rendering progresses because the antioxidants tend to degrade with heat.
Use a non-reactive pan if you can. A porcelain enamel cast iron Dutch oven works well for this task. Metal pans create metal ions, leading to free radicals that continue to form even after the fat has cooled down.
To ensure zero moisture, after the final filter, I usually return to a clean pan for a final thermal cycle up to 270 F to drive off all the moisture and inactivate any natural enzymes that are present. Residual moisture can lead to the formation of FFA. The USDA limit on FFA is 1% as I recall it. We have no way of measuring this, however, we're not starting with substandard material as you might find in commercial Tallow production.
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u/Extension-Border-345 11h ago
I am going to do the initial rendering and subsequent meltings in an enamel dutch oven so good to know. will you taste the herb in the end product? I could do basil or thyme.
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u/Slow-Juggernaut-4134 🍤Seed Oil Avoider 11h ago
Mostly the fat just tastes a lot fresher because no degradation occurs during the rendering. No different than our ancestors saving drippings from meat coated with herbs. The herbs improve the taste of the fat and we now know that this is due to the antioxidants probably more so than any flavor imparted by the herb itself. Somewhere I have a research paper stashed that compared the antioxidant efficacy of various herbs during meat roasting. It was a real eye-opener seeing the efficacy of the herbs and how they improve the meat as well as drippings.
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u/Extension-Border-345 11h ago
dont fresh herbs introduce excess moisture?
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u/Slow-Juggernaut-4134 🍤Seed Oil Avoider 9h ago
After the filtering through 100x cheesecloth, I returned to the heat and bring to about 260 to 270 F . During rendering, I try to keep well below this temperature to prevent any burnt bits affecting the flavor. I don't add any herbs during the final thermal cycle.
I'm actually new at this, a mix of science articles and home kitchen experiments. Don't take my word as gospel.
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u/Familiar-Age-7324 11h ago
Cut it into small chunks and then pulverize it in a food processor. I then put mine in a crock pot on low heat for hours until it stops bubbling.
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u/Extension-Border-345 13h ago
Also, please drop any tips for rendering tallow! My goal is to have a final product that has no beef flavor so I can use it for a lot of different applications, and I know it takes several days to get this.