Anyone rendering their own lard, tallow or schmaltz?

[Gameface]

A while back I had a crack at making homemade pho. Of course to make a proper pho you've got to make your own broth. So I did that. I used some chuck, oxtail and beef bones. I used all the pho aromatic spices, charred the onion, etc, the whole nine. I had also read that for clearer broth you should continuously skim the stuff that rises to the surface. I did that. I collected my "skimmings" in a large bowl. Realizing much of the skimmings was rendered fat I looked that up. Turns out rendered beef fat is called tallow (rendered pork fat is lard, rendered chicken fat is schmaltz). I followed a procedure for clearing/purifying the tallow and I saved it for a later use. Now, this tallow was rendered with a spice-rich broth, so it retained a lot of that flavor, which was pretty awesome, but not always appropriate.

A bit later I decided to make my own beef stock for stew, and again I saved the tallow and cleared it up. But I had used bay leaf in the stock and the tallow had a pretty noticeable bay leaf flavor.

I've been buying broth/stock components for the last month or so when I find a nice fatty, bone-in piece of beef on a manager's special or whatnot and I made a special trip down to the Asian market to get a bunch of beef bones (for some reason the butcher at China City Market likes me. He's talked **** about other customers and stuff with me a few times. He reminds me of Buntaro from the book Shogun.) I bought all the bones they had, about six pounds worth. The butcher hooked me up and only rang up about 2/3 of them. I guess since they probably go to waste a lot it wasn't much of a hookup.

So today I'm making more stock and collecting more tallow. This time I'm rendering the tallow with no added spices. I'll fix that when it's time to make some beef stew (later tonight).

Anyway, tallow is phenomenal! It is just about the best cooking "oil" I've ever used. Delicious, high smoke point and surprisingly enough, healthy. You can reuse it too, as long as you don't get it too hot, but I haven't reused mine.

Feels good making my own stock, rendering my own tallow and cooking my own food from scratch. But you know, I'm like a bad *** and ****.

 

[Deleted member 848]

No señor. Primarily coconut oil for me. Olive oil used mostly raw.

 

[Gameface]

No señor. Primarily coconut oil for me. Olive oil used mostly raw.

Rendering your own coconut and olive oil?

Just kidding. I've actually never used coconut oil as far as I know. Is it pretty good?

 

[Gameface]

Pho broth is straight up intoxicating to me. Very few things make me as euphoric as the smell of a good pho broth. Making my own pho broth is like going into an opium den. Shut the curtains, turn down the lights, I'm busy for the next 16 hours.

 

[LogGrad98]

I render tallow. I don't worry about rendering schmaltz or lard because that fat is better left on the animal for cooking (it's what makes great pulled pork, liquid pork fat....now that is like crack right there), but every time I cook beef and I trim fat I render the tallow. It's very easy to render (boil the fat, refrigerate the boiled liquid, lift off the pure tallow the next day), and it keeps for a very long time in the fridge. Of course usually it isn't around long because it is great to cook with.

I use tallow for cooking in various capacities, but my favorite usage is to sear steaks.

I cook steaks differently than most, depending on the thickness. For thin steaks they just go on the grill on high heat, one minute per side max, done. No fancy spices, just kosher salt and cracked black pepper at the end so it doesn't burn. Finished steaks get a dollop of tallow and fresh herbs along with the pepper. That combined with the juices from the steak make the best sauce you could hope for on a steak.

If it is a good thick aged steak, thick being anything more than about an inch (age it and cut it myself when I can), I cook it low and slow on indirect heat, almost like barbecue, sometimes with the grill as low as 190, until the beef hits an internal of 110-115. Then I liberally slather melted tallow all over the top of the steak and flip it over onto high heat (looking for 600+ which is easy to do with charcoal. I use a cheap little travel hibachi for this, fresh coals almost touching the grate. I leave the steak in one place for 10-15 seconds, then shift it. Repeat for up to a minute checking the underside regularly. You are looking for a deep brown, with maybe flecks of char but no real charred area except the edges. That classic mahogany look is where the flavor is. Grill marks just means sections of over-cooked meat and that doesn't add to the flavor. If the fire is hot enough then 30-45 seconds is plenty, shifting it 2-3 times. With this method you are basically using the tallow to deep fry the crust, which is awesome. Then hit the other side with tallow, flip it, and crack fresh black pepper on the side you just seared. Repeat, flip it to a plate and hit it with pepper again and either a pat of butter or some more tallow along with some fresh savory herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, etc.). Rest it just long enough to get to the table (resting meat in general is a myth, other than for carry-over cooking in birds to avoid over-cooking....juice distribution is an old wive's tale...the meat rests enough to relax the fibers from the heat between the grill and the table while everyone gets settled, etc.) then dig in. With this method you get it edge to edge the same color, medium rare all the way through, with an awesome crust. Bon apetit.

 

[Gameface]

I render tallow. I don't worry about rendering schmaltz or lard because that fat is better left on the animal for cooking (it's what makes great pulled pork, liquid pork fat....now that is like crack right there), but every time I cook beef and I trim fat I render the tallow. It's very easy to render (boil the fat, refrigerate the boiled liquid, lift off the pure tallow the next day), and it keeps for a very long time in the fridge. Of course usually it isn't around long because it is great to cook with.

I use tallow for cooking in various capacities, but my favorite usage is to sear steaks.

I cook steaks differently than most, depending on the thickness. For thin steaks they just go on the grill on high heat, one minute per side max, done. No fancy spices, just kosher salt and cracked black pepper at the end so it doesn't burn. Finished steaks get a dollop of tallow and fresh herbs along with the pepper. That combined with the juices from the steak make the best sauce you could hope for on a steak.

If it is a good thick aged steak, thick being anything more than about an inch (age it and cut it myself when I can), I cook it low and slow on indirect heat, almost like barbecue, sometimes with the grill as low as 190, until the beef hits an internal of 110-115. Then I liberally slather melted tallow all over the top of the steak and flip it over onto high heat (looking for 600+ which is easy to do with charcoal. I use a cheap little travel hibachi for this, fresh coals almost touching the grate. I leave the steak in one place for 10-15 seconds, then shift it. Repeat for up to a minute checking the underside regularly. You are looking for a deep brown, with maybe flecks of char but no real charred area except the edges. That classic mahogany look is where the flavor is. Grill marks just means sections of over-cooked meat and that doesn't add to the flavor. If the fire is hot enough then 30-45 seconds is plenty, shifting it 2-3 times. With this method you are basically using the tallow to deep fry the crust, which is awesome. Then hit the other side with tallow, flip it, and crack fresh black pepper on the side you just seared. Repeat, flip it to a plate and hit it with pepper again and either a pat of butter or some more tallow along with some fresh savory herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, etc.). Rest it just long enough to get to the table (resting meat in general is a myth, other than for carry-over cooking in birds to avoid over-cooking....juice distribution is an old wive's tale...the meat rests enough to relax the fibers from the heat between the grill and the table while everyone gets settled, etc.) then dig in. With this method you get it edge to edge the same color, medium rare all the way through, with an awesome crust. Bon apetit.

 

[LogGrad98]

Ok so let's talk cracklin. The main reason I don't bother with schmalz or lard is that both taste better helping to cook and moisten the meat of the animals they come from. Also, of the 3 I have found that lard keeps the longest, tallow next, and schmalz doesn't keep very long at all before it starts tasting funky. I played around with this a bit when I started smoking meats, and now I just render tallow, and usually just for specific purposes.

One of my favorite applications is to make cracklin out of chicken or turkey skins. It is easy, and I do it every time I cook a turkey with the skin I trim from the bird when prepping. It is also the most sought after bit on Thanksgiving competing with the oyster.

Here is how you make it. In a way you could say this is a product of slow rendering of chicken fat. You could probably do this over something to catch the fat and have some nice smokey schmalz if you like. I do use a cookie sheet or something similar but it allows the fat to kind of burn off and isn't really usable as schmalz.

Heat up the grill/smoker to 325 in a 2 zone setup (one side hot, one side cool, meaning indirect heat). You can do this in the oven too but I think they are better on the grill or smoker. I cook them in a small pan next to my turkey when I am cooking turkey on the smoker.

Anyway, find a flat pan you can place in your grill, or a cookie sheet for the oven. Cut the skin into manageable chunks or strips, but you can leave them whole if you want. Spread them with a bit of space between on the bottom of the pan, sprinkle with a little kosher salt and place in the smoker/grill (on the indirect side) or oven. Cook at a steady 325-350 temp (have to be over 325 to crisp them right, but not higher than 350 or the fat won't render out right and they will burn too easy) until they shrivel up and get crunchy. They will generally be light golden brown. I test them with a fork, meaning I take one off the grill with a fork and eat it. I usually have to test 5 or 6 to make sure. Or more if no one is watching. When they are crispy take them all off and eat them, right then and there. You won't be able to do it any other way really. They are better hot, although room temp is fine too if they last that long. Splash on a bit of crystal hot sauce or tabasco. You can dip them in whatever. But really you will probably just hunch over the plate and scarf them down, then lick the plate. Really good, and really easy.

This is a good reason to buy whole roaster chickens and cut out your own skinless chicken breasts so you can eat healthy chicken on a salad while you are cooking the cracklin on the grill.