How to Make Tallow for Skincare (or Eating!)
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Have you been wanting to learn how to make tallow for skincare but thought it was complicated? I will walk you through the process of rendering your own tallow step by step in this post.
This post is all about how to render tallow for skin care
Table of Contents
Tallow for skincare? Sounds so strange!! Yes, I hear you. I was kind of weirded out at first as well. As unique as it sounded, I was more intrigued than ever! I learned a few of the techniques and then jumped in head first to try it myself. The results were nothing short of amazing. Within a few short days, my kiddos horrific eczema started to clear up and their skin started to heal. I was immediately shocked and excited. I vowed to share it with the world.
If you struggle with skin problems- eczema, psoriasis or dry flaky skin, then you need to try tallow skin care. I do have my own line of skincare that you can buy (links below!) but if you want to learn how to render your own tallow, keep reading 🙂
Before you can render tallow, you have to source your suet. When making your own tallow, it is very important to buy SUET and not just any fat. The suet is the fat from around the kidneys of the animals and is odourless and creamy white when rendered down. When you talk to a butcher, they will know what you mean, even if you don’t feel 100% confident. Been there! Lol
I like to talk to local butchers (I had to call around to ask) so I am supporting local. Typically, they will charge a few dollars per pound.
Struggling With Weird Tallow Textures?
If your balm turns grainy, greasy, or runny, I created a tallow troubleshooting mini course that shows you exactly how to fix it, without wasting another batch.
Materials Needed for Rendering Your Own Tallow:
- 5 Lbs Beef Suet
- 6L (Quarts) of Filtered Water, Divided
- 6 Tbsp Himalayan or Sea Salt, Divided
- Crock Pot- here is a link for a basic model
- Mixing Spoon
- Strainer
- Big Mixing Bowl (Stainless Steel)
How to Render Your Tallow
1. If your suet is preground, you can skip this step but if your suet comes in large chunks, chop it up as fine as you can to help all of the fat melt.
2. Add your suet into your crockpot (mine holds all 5 lbs comfortably!)
3. Cover it with 3 L of filtered water and then sprinkle 3 Tbsp of salt on top.
4. Set the crockpot on low. The first render usually takes me around 8 hours. Check on it and give it a stir every now and again.
5. Once everything is melted, it is time to strain! Turn your crockpot off and set it aside until you are able to comfortably handle it with no oven mitts. No one wants the potential of hot oil to splatter and burn!
*Quick heads up. These next few steps are yucky lol The first couple times I rendered my own tallow, I was unpleasantly shocked by this and I don’t want that for you!
6. Place a large mixing bowl on the ground- yes I said on the ground. The first few times I rendered tallow, I did it in the sink but unfortunately, one of the times the bowl tipped and I dumped tallow down the drain. If you are wondering, yes. It did clog our drain and septic tank and yes, we did have to hire a company to come suck it out. Don’t make my mistake lol Do it on the floor.
7. Place a fine mesh strainer over it and then pour the tallow/ water mixture in. The result will be little bits of meat that can be fed to the dogs or chickens. They surprisingly love it!
8. Set it aside to cool down and harden completely.
9. After it is completely hard, you will see bits on the top that you can scrape off (again, dogs and chickens love this!)
10. After the yucky bits are scraped off, take the big chunks of tallow and place them back in the crockpot. The water under this will be murky and a bit smelly.
11. Strain the water for the small bits of tallow (this part can be over the sink as long as the strainer is fine enough.) I would discard these small bits as they will likely be chunks you don’t want in your final product.
12. To the crockpot with the tallow chunks, add 2 L of filtered water for this render and 2 Tbsp salt. Turn it on low again. For this second render, it should melt much faster, somewhere between 4-6 hours.
13. Repeat the straining, cooling and scraping (steps 9-11)
*If you are looking to eat your tallow (like we do in these bread recipes!) you can stop here and store it.
*If you are looking to use this in skincare and soaps, I would proceed with the third render.
14. Repeat the same steps by placing the tallow back in the crockpot, adding only 1 L of water and 1 Tbsp of salt setting it on low for 4-6 hours or as long as it takes to melt then strain, harden and scrape. Ensure all of the water is dried off before you store it as the water can cause the tallow to go rancid faster.
How to clean your tools after you render your tallow
*Special note, I make it a general rule to clean out my bowls, spoons and crockpot with paper towel to avoid the possibility of any tallow going down the drain. Once it has been wiped clean, you can hand wash or place in the dishwasher.
Now your tallow is ready to use! You can store it in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 1 year or even few years when stored airtight in the freezer. Let me know how it goes for you! Thank you for reading 🙂 If you want to watch how I make the tallow check out the video below!
Thank you so much for reading this post about how to render your own tallow! You may be interested in:
I have a quick question. Im trying this for the first time and I just finished the first rendering. It’s been about 14hrs and when I went to take the “hardened” fat and separate it from the water it wasn’t hard. It was mushy. What could have gone wrong? Thank you
Hey! Thank you for the comment! My first thought is it may not have been true suet (the fat from the kidneys.) It may have just been trim fat which tends to be the texture of lard. If it isn’t that, is it still soft when it is in the fridge? In warm climates or in summer, the suet can stay a bit softer. If you are using it for cooking, the softness shouldn’t be an issue but if it is for skincare, you may want to add some beeswax to your balms to firm it up a bit. I hope this helps!!
Thanks again for the comment 🙂
Curious if it is okay once you are done separating the hard suit from water preparing for the next melting process to just let it sit like that without water and salt overnight to finish the next day? Will this cause souring or anything?
That shouldn’t be an issue as long as you strain out all the chunks. You can always pop it in the fridge if you want to be sure until it is fully rendered 🙂 Thanks for the commment!