By
December 3, 2023
Rendered animal fat was the primary cooking fat in northern kitchens for generations before vegetable oils became cheap and ubiquitous. It deserves a comeback. Lard and tallow are stable at high heat, add excellent flavor, and are nearly free if you hunt or buy trim fat direct from a butcher.
Sourcing the Fat
For lard, the best quality fat comes from leaf lard — the dense, smooth fat that surrounds the kidneys of a pig. It has the mildest flavor and renders into the purest white lard, which is ideal for pastry. Back fat is your next option: slightly more pronounced in flavor but still excellent for frying and general cooking. Any butcher who processes whole animals either has both on hand or can set it aside for you. Many give it away; at worst you pay a few cents per pound. Call ahead and ask — most people don't, so supply usually sits waiting.
For tallow, start with beef kidney fat, also called suet. Like leaf lard, it produces the cleanest-tasting rendered fat. Trim fat from brisket or chuck cuts also works well and is often available in larger quantities. If you hunt deer, note that deer tallow has a strong, waxy flavor that makes it poorly suited for cooking — it works better for soap or candles. Stick to beef for the kitchen. Buy in bulk when you find a good source; fall, when farms are processing animals, is the easiest time to secure a large batch.
The Wet Rendering Method
Start by cutting your fat into rough 1-inch cubes. If you have a meat grinder, running the fat through it first speeds up rendering considerably — more surface area means faster fat release. Add the cut or ground fat to a heavy-bottomed pot, then pour in about 1 cup of water for every 2 pounds of fat. The water seems counterintuitive, but it does critical work: it prevents the fat from scorching on the bottom of the pot during the early stages when the tissue is still intact and the fat hasn't yet begun to flow freely.
Cook over very low heat — a 2 or 3 on a gas burner — and stir every 20 to 30 minutes. The water will bubble and eventually evaporate, usually within the first hour. After 2 to 3 hours total, the fat will be clear and golden and the remaining tissue will have shrunken into small, golden-brown bits. These are cracklings. Strain the liquid fat through a fine-mesh strainer or two layers of cheesecloth into clean mason jars. The cracklings are done — salt them and eat them immediately.
The Dry Rendering Method
Dry rendering uses oven heat instead of stovetop heat and skips the water entirely. Preheat your oven to 225°F — low and slow is the rule. Spread your cubed or ground fat in a single layer in a large roasting pan or Dutch oven and slide it into the oven. The fat will begin to melt and pool within the first hour. Stir every 30 minutes to keep the tissue moving and ensure even rendering.
The dry method produces a fat with a very neutral flavor, slightly more so than the wet method, which makes it especially good for pastry where you want pure fat character without any toasted notes. The tradeoff is vigilance: without water to buffer the temperature, scorching is possible if your oven runs hot. Use an oven thermometer to verify your actual temperature before committing a large batch. A scorched batch cannot be saved — the bitter, burnt flavor carries through the entire yield. For large quantities, the oven method is otherwise the easier choice: it is mostly hands-off and frees up your stovetop. Strain and jar exactly as you would with the wet method.
Storage and Uses
Pour the rendered fat into clean mason jars while it is still liquid, leaving about an inch of headspace. It will solidify as it cools — lard turns white and opaque; tallow turns harder and slightly ivory in color. Both are shelf-stable at cool room temperatures, but refrigeration extends quality significantly. A jar in the refrigerator will stay good for months. For longer storage, freeze it; rendered fat kept frozen holds quality for a year or more without any noticeable degradation.
Lard earns its reputation in pastry. The fat coats flour proteins differently than butter, producing pie crusts and biscuits with a flakiness that butter alone cannot match. It is also excellent for frying potatoes, searing meat, and building pan sauces. Tallow handles high heat extremely well, which makes it ideal for cast-iron cooking, roasting vegetables, and deep frying. Season a cast-iron pan with tallow and it builds a durable, non-stick surface quickly. Keep a small working jar of whichever fat you use most at room temperature near the stove — it spreads and melts immediately when you need it. Store the rest cold.