Is beef tallow making a comeback?

I made it a few years ago. Tallow is trendy (and thus expensive), but you make it by rendering suet which is basically a throw-away product at butcher shops. Lots don't even bother selling suet, which is a pain. Rendering was just slow-cooking and removing the little pieces, then you're left with candle wax you can cook with.

I thought the candle wax consistency was a coincidence, but it was the main way to make candles for most of history. It tastes pretty good but has a strong smell when cooking (or burning as a candle, presumably).

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#8

Post by bowmessage » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

Workaccount2 wrote: post #5

RFK's playbook is to wake up, check what the crunchy moms on instagram are cackling about, issue policy based on the comments sections.

Remove whatever politics you might believe from the equation.

Is beef tallow a better option for a cooking fat? I think it is.

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#9

Post by amelius » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

almosthere wrote: post #2

[flagged]

I guess by far the majority of people on this planet selected:

    ( ) Shitty and short life

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#10

Post by halostatue » Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 10:48 PM UTC

Not to be flippant, but we know that the answer to that is "No" because of Betteridge's Law of Headlines[1].

I haven't read the article ("too hard, didn't care"), but as a foodie:

- in certain food circles, it never went away - industrially, McD's in at least North America used beef tallow as one of the par-frying oils for their fries well into the 21st century -- which caused a stir amongst vegetarians and Hindu who had assumed that the fries were vegetarian (I remember stories here in Canada in 2002-2003) - beef tallow is now fascionable, which accounts for the reactionary resurgence for something that never really went away - the science is very clear that the new guidance from RFK's worm-eaten brain is junk - the science is also very clear that while saturated fats like beef tallow are bad for you compared to olive oil and seed oils, they're better than hydrogenated fats and trans-fat products that were pushed on the world for a couple of decades a couple of decades ago

Beef tallow is a net good inasmuch as it helps ensure whole animal use, but that doesn't make it healthy or suitable for all diets.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines