Introduction
How much do you spend on oils for your home? The average US household spends $117 per year in 2021 - before inflation. The 2022 price hasn't been published but in 2022, Vegetable Oil soured to 152% price increase. Far outpacing inflation. That estimated $177 per year - and that's average, not our Southwestern need to fry things!
If you buy a whole beef from Barnard Beef, you can get the leaf fat and make liquid Gold beef tallow at home. It's way easier than I thought and wanted to experiment. Here is the background and info - stay with me friends, this was a learning process for me.
Background: I'm highly allergic to soybean oil. I know people worry about hormones in cattle, but a soy latte has a ton more hormones than a steak. "I don't drink soy lattes, I'm Texan" is what you are thinking... do you eat French Fries, Ranch Dressing, Mayo, Fried Chicken? Most all of that is soybean oil. I'm no fun to eat at a restaurant with because I'll either spend 2 hours calling for safe restaurants or eat dry lettuce and cry in front of you. So we buy super expensive olive oil because it has less chance to be mixed with soy oil. That's tough on the budget during inflation and wanted to share with you my solution to cut back.
Beef Tallow/Leaf Fat
Process
What else can you do with leaf fat?
Another pro tip: When you're smoking a brisket, throw a bunch of the chunks of the trimmed fat (or extra suet if you've got it) in a bread pan or other appropriately sized dish on the upper rack above the meat. Smoked for ~12 hours while the meat cooks, this renders down the same way as described in the given crock-pot recipe, but with that wonderful smoky flavor cooked right in. Used for frying eggs, or flash-searing steak when it's done in a sous-vide... it's awesome. You're welcome!