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Is beef tallow making a comeback?

nytimes.com

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Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#121

Post by nicole_express »

Aeglaecia wrote: post #88
m000 wrote: post #48

As an outside observer of this beef tallow trend, it looks to me a lot like a fad driven by some internalized machismo: "It's not proper food if it's not from a dead animal." While this is not unique to the US, apparently believers of this in the US reached a critical mass enough to make it public policy. I don't doubt that one can find health benefits in beef tallow. But I also vividly remember ads in the 80s and 90…

i dont think it takes machismo to say that frying in animal fat is tastier than frying in whatever the hell constitues canola oil , as well your american breads and pastas are probably significantly less healthy than the european equivalent

Looking at dry pasta from Europe and the US, they seem pretty much the same, except the US pasta is more likely to use enriched flour; not sure what makes that less healthy.

Bread varies a lot and yeah we have some terrible breads, I don't buy them but someone must because they keep selling them

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#122

Post by bluGill »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #107
wincy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to Malcom Gladwell talking about how McDonald’s switched from beef tallow, and decided to try the double fry method using tallow for myself. Deep frying your fries in beef tallow is an absolutely incredible experience, each bite is so rich and satisfying. We definitely lost something in the switch.

Don't worry, they are already salivating at the idea of a tallow renaissance, where they can do a viral marketing blast of "McDonalds Tallow fries"

Maybe. Tallow is more expensive so they are probably happy to charge less for fries to the majority that wouldn't pay extra for it. Keeping two different sets of fries is more headaches than they are likely to want to have.

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#124

Post by anon84873628 »

boringg wrote: post #93

Someone on this thread is able to speak to the argument that has been made about beef being specifically the animal meat to not eat due to its ability to raise inflammation in the system. I had one of the top level specialists say that people with high cholesterol should only eat beef once a year due to its ability to raise inflammation in the circulatory system. Wouldn't beef tallow be along the same line? It's seem…

"Meat" is lots of different proteins and other stuff that comprises muscle tissue. Rendered fat is mostly just triglycerides.

Totally different chemical classes for your body to respond to.

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#125

Post by dmschulman »

dyauspitr wrote: post #34

Beef tallow itself with its triglycerides cannot be healthy.

It's not healthy in the least, but attempts to help fans understand why it is so are met with resistance due to ingrained biases and skepticism of the establishment.

The pushback against "institutional nutrition" has been a long time coming and is honestly welcomed as health and nutrition science have evolved from the days of telling us to avoid all fat and offering consumers "low calorie" processed foods that didn't do our bodies much good.

In the same way the bacon craze of the 2000s was a successful marketing effort from pork farmers, cattle farmers (and their lobbying groups) are now having a moment with beef and subsequent beef products. Good nutritional science has been pointing to many fats (but not all fats) actually being good for our diet, contrary to those old institutional guidelines, but there's a lot of nuance around adding fats back to a person's diet. Many aren't making the distinction between saturated vs unsaturated fat as well as UDL and LDL cholesterol that ends up in our bloodstream (one of those is not good for us!).

But in an era of memes, misinformation, and context collapse good luck trying to have that more complicated discussion with people when the nutritional aspect is brought up (the book is closed on the flavor debate of course, it's delicious)

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#126

Post by tbrownaw »

m000 wrote: post #48

As an outside observer of this beef tallow trend, it looks to me a lot like a fad driven by some internalized machismo: "It's not proper food if it's not from a dead animal." While this is not unique to the US, apparently believers of this in the US reached a critical mass enough to make it public policy. I don't doubt that one can find health benefits in beef tallow. But I also vividly remember ads in the 80s and 90…

> As an outside observer of this beef tallow trend, it looks to me a lot like a fad driven by some internalized machismo: "It's not proper food if it's not from a dead animal."

Well, it's a response to the green/eco push for making do with protein from insects and plants only and that it's bad and wrong to have nice things because global warming and sustainability.

It's not a "something died for this so therefore it's better", it's "stop commanding me to not have nice things".

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#127

Post by iamflimflam1 »

paulnpace wrote: post #46

> relatively obscure cooking medium I guess I'm old now, because I remember when it was a big deal that McDonald's switched from using tallow.

Definitely feeling my age. Growing up we had a "dripping bowl" that was kept in the fridge and received any left over fat from roasting meat.

This would then be used for frying etc.. I imagine my parents would have used it when they were young for "dripping" sandwiches.

Maybe this was just a UK thing?

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#128

Post by Cornbilly »

UncleMeat wrote: post #81
m000 wrote: post #48

As an outside observer of this beef tallow trend, it looks to me a lot like a fad driven by some internalized machismo: "It's not proper food if it's not from a dead animal." While this is not unique to the US, apparently believers of this in the US reached a critical mass enough to make it public policy. I don't doubt that one can find health benefits in beef tallow. But I also vividly remember ads in the 80s and 90…

This is my vibe too. There is a huge masculinism effort across not only the Trump administration but broader society. Just look at the number of "cereal, but for MEN" products that have cropped up in the last couple years. Relatedly, it is crazy to me that people don't see the value in gender studies as an academic field when so much of the past couple years has revolved around gender.

A lot of guys are very insecure because they’re overweight and sedentary and have a desk job (instead of working manual labor). And since the US is all about making your consumption your identity, the “x is masculine” marketing is like shooting fish in barrel.

Re: Is beef tallow making a comeback?

#129

Post by pc86 »

franktankbank wrote: post #64
bloaf wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all know there has been a replication crisis across many different disciplines of science. I think that the set of things we actually know about nutrition and health is a lot smaller than the experts think. However, the problem is that the public has also come to that conclusion. The public has gone on to decide "that means my incredibly weakly-evidenced idea is just as good as the expert opinions" which does not…

Lived experience is not really weak evidence though. Personally I use tallow minimally but it seems like a really good high flash point oil.

The entire concept of "lived experience" is, bluntly - absolute bullshit. You take all the worst aspects of both conscious and unconscious biases as well as anecdotal 'evidence', and wrap it up in the fact that the average person is simply not capable of objectively analyzing themselves[0], and you end up with people saying that demonstrably false things are true simply because that's how they [incorrectly] interpreted their "lived experience," or how their "lived experience" supports their decisions. This last part is particularly true with politics and nutrition, where people make decisions not based on objective data but based mostly on how they were raised and what they like.

I can spend decades eating junk food and lose weight as long as I work out long enough and hard enough. My "lived experience" tells me that junk food is fine simply because it hasn't killed me yet.

[0] 80-90% of people describe themselves as an "above-average" driver.

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