Started Low-N-Slow BBQ in 2012. Obviously, it's taken hold (in chronological order:
1.) A pair of Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5's
2.) #LilTex, a 22" Expensive Offset Smoker (looks like a Yoder Witicha)
3.) #WhoDat1, a HUGE Gravity Fed Insulated Cabinet Smoker (cooking chamber 3'x2'x6')
4.) A Full Size Commercial Dryer/converted to Vertical Smoker.
5.) Jambo Backyard stickburner (my FAVORITE Pit so far)
6.) GrillMeister, a huge 24"x48" Adjustable, Charcoal Grill from Pitmaker.com
7.) 22" Weber Kettle with Slow-N-Sear
8.) Vault insulated reverse-flow cabinet smoker from Pitmaker
9.) BarbecueFiretruck...under development
10.) 26 foot BBQ Vending Trailer equipped with HUGE Myron Mixon 72xc smoker is HERE, Oct 2016!
11.) Opened www.PaulsRibShackBarbecue.com Food Trailer officially in March 2017
12.) Austin Smoke Works 500 Gallon Propane Tank Offset Smoker, named "Lucille" as travel pit for PaulsRibShack, Oct 2018.
12.) Opening Brick & Mortar location at 4800 Nelson Rd, Spring 2019. Had a pair of 1,000 Gallon Austin Smoke Works pits, both in RibShackRed for our new place!
Fabulous Backlit Thermapens, several Maverick Remote Thermometers (don't use any remotes anymore), Thermoworks Smoke, Other Thermoworks toys, Vacuum sealer, lots and lots of equipment...
I'm loving using BBQ to make friends and build connections.
I have #theRibList where I keep a list of new and old friends and whenever I'm cooking, I make 1 to 20 extra and share the joy.
We are trimming a lot of briskets, and ending up with a lot of delicious fat. We've been rendering it down in the oven low and slow and ending up with some delicious Beef Tallow.
My Starter Questions include:
How long and in what manner do you store your tallow?
Any learnings in your journey at making your tallow?
I store it in a mason jar in the fridge, I store it for months as necessary with no problem. I use it to sear my steaks & such on the flat top. I just cut the fat into as small a pieces as I can, better if its near frozen when cutting. I render on the stove top in a large stainless steel skillet or soup pot.
I have used beef tallow to fry potatoes in the past. Adds a nice extra bit of flavor. The smoke point of beef tallow is around 400 degrees so it is great for deep frying homemade fries or potato chips.
I want to try rubbing some on some ribs before wrapping (similar to what you would do with butter) and see what that does.
I know this is an old post, but not many folks talking about "beef cracklins" around here. I was curious how much of a thing they were, because my kids love to eat them. I created an amazing sandwich with my son. Salt and pepper the still warm cracklins. Toss some arugula in olive oil, with salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. Mix in some shaved parmisian cheese. Put the cracklins and salad mixture on some light rye bread. It's a killer sandwich.
I store it in large jugs, and also Mason jars. One Mason jar in the fridge for solid applications, one on the counter for liquid applications, and then the large jugs in the freezer (will keep forever). I use it for deep frying in my deep fryers, baking, and anywhere oil and or butter were used. Also any moving parts of food gizmos such as meat grinder or pasta roller. I use tallow, or bacon grease very often. Get creative, vinegarettes, use cold for biscuits (work quickly and move back into fridge once it starts to melt) tortillas, even add to home made mayo and or sauces.
I've lined a rimmed baking sheet with large parchment paper (Costco), and pour the warm tallow in after rendering and straining through cheesecloth. Then, carefully so as not spill (in cold weather, leave it outside to become more viscous), put it in the chest freezer. Later, you can lift up the parchment paper and crack the tallow into pieces that look like chocolate peppermint bark, or peanut brittle. Into a vacuum bag, seal, then you can remove what you need at any time. I didn't even have to wash the baking pan, as I had folded the corners of the parchment paper to avoid areas which could leak fat.
Here are links I have previously listed from the Thermoworks blog on french fries. They say to add a little refined peanut oil to prevent the tallow from foaming over the top of your fry pot when cooking (which could be dangerous when using flames!)
To make the best homemade french fries you have to use the right oil! We tried two high smoke point oils in a side by side comparison. Check out the results!
If you love fries, you'll love this brief history of the food and the name. Are french fries French? No, but their history is fascinating! Learn more about this versatile, beloved food.
Troutman, so far just a YouTube, Amazing Ribs, Thermoworks blog, reader and emulator. I have yet to use the tallow! I want to make the french fries, but need to overcome my wife's resistance to eating beef fat, and animal fat in general. She's from North Dakota; her relatives would have starved and froze if it wasn't for bacon grease! I'm working on her. Have been for almost 40 years, almost there....😠I've another big bowl of cold fat trimmings from the 18 lb Costco packer yet to render.
Lonestar Grillz 24x36 offset smoker, grill, w/ main chamber charcoal grate and 3 tel-tru thermometers - left, right and center
Yoke Up custom charcoal basket and a Grill Wraps cover.
22.5 copper kettle w/ SnS, DnG, BBQ vortex, gasket and stainless steel hinge kit.
Napoleon gas grill (soon to go bye bye) rotting out.
1 maverick et-733 digital thermometer - black
1 maverick et-733 - gray
1 new standard grilling remote digital thermometer
1 thermoworks thermopen mk4 - red
1 thermoworks thermopop - red
Pre Miala flavor injector
taylor digital scale
TSM meat grinder
chefs choice food slicer
cuisinhart food processor
food saver vacuum sealer
TSM harvest food dehydrator
Once rendered down I pour the tallow into ice cube trays, after it cools down a bit so the plastic trays don’t melt. 😬 Pop them in the freezer and the next day break them out like ice cubes and store them in ziplock bags in the freezer.
The uses are endless for this rich gem.
I do it all the time! Especially with Wagyu briskets. I store it in Ball Jars after filtering about three times. Then I store it in the fridge. They keep for moths and months. (it never lasts that long)
I use it to add to chili, brush it on any thing beef or use some to fry eggs. They are great for any kind of cast iron cooking as well. My fridge always has an ample supply.
Tallow is really nice in handmade soap and lotions.
It ... no kidding ... is good in lip balm. Gently melt 1/3 tallow, 1/3 beeswax, and 1/3 liquid oil and tweak the proportions from there to get the consistency you like.
Just sayin' in case you have more than you need for cooking.
Not as important on a coarse grind.. a lot of people think the meat need to be cold when fine grinding when in reality the knife need to be drawn really tight against the plate when grinding fine on a second grind.i believed that for a long time.. used to freeze the grinder head , .get meat half fronzen.. I was making sausage with an old guy and it wasn't grinding right , he said tighten the nut on the end up. I reached for ice,. He grabbed the spanner wrench and hit it with a rubber mallet and it worked perfect..lesson learned when a 70 year old guy says something listen... Don't show him what you know he will make you look stupid..
Your generation has a lot of knowledge.. I wish more younger people would just sit and listen..it is amazing what someone can learn if they stop talking.. last year I taught a 73 year old cowboy from North Dakota to make maple syrup.. he thanked me at the end of the season and I told him the pleasure was all mine..
Funny you should ask that. I am currently rendering 1500 grams of bees wax in a Crockpot, using the Crockpot Slow Cooker Liner, with the wax inside a paint filter bag (can also use nylon socks, available cheap apparently). Poured a couple of liters of water into the crock pot, put the mesh bag on top. This works well, only takes a couple of hours on high. The Liner protects the crockpot from the wax, and is food safe, so would work for the tallow. Not sure about the paint filter bag.
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