Suet Tallow

This makes a nice batch of tallow that keeps a long time at room temperature. A healthy cooking fat!

Ingredients:

1 package beef suet

Instructions:

Defrost the suet. Trim all meat from the fat. Cut the trimmed fat into small pieces, about the size of an almond. Some people recommend partially re-freezing the small pieces so that they can be chopped in a blender without clogging it. The point is to cut up the fat into really small pieces with or without using a blender. Place suet in a crock pot and use a warm setting if available. If not, use the low setting. As the fat begins to heat up, cracklings will come to the top. They are quite delicious and good for you too! Scoop them off as they occur and save them to munch on later. It can take several hours for the suet to become liquid. When it is liquid, carefully pour through a cheese cloth into a heat-resistant glass dish to cool (this is where you will need another pair of hands). After it cools and hardens, cut or break into pieces and store in a plastic bag or a resealable container.

Suggestion: keep the amount you anticipate to use within a month or two in the cabinet and freeze the rest until it's needed.

This is a staple in our kitchen. It's the healthiest fat we have and we use it liberally. We use cast iron skillets for most of our stove top cooking and the pieces of suet tallow are also great to rub inside the skillets after they are washed to keep them from rusting. And, the skillets are always ready the next thing I need to cook in them.

The pictures are presented in the order of the process. The only one missing is the one for straining the liquid fat. That took two pairs of hands.