Beef tallow is everywhere. Restaurants and chefs proudly tout it on their menus, and influencers have infused it into their skin care routines. But why now? And is it really better for your health and skin?
To answer these questions, we need to figure out what it is and then go back in time for a short history lesson. Tallow is rendered animal fat, and it’s been around for millennia. So it’s definitely not a new fad; Egyptians and Romans used it for cooking and skin care long before Instagram’s algorithm blew it up. More recently, it was also used in soaps before synthetic chemicals and processed oils replaced it. What was once a homestead staple has made a resurgence into the mainstream.
“Tallow is back with a vengeance because it supports our local farmers and it’s more in tune with our natural bio makeup,” says Eruch Hedendal, owner of Ancient Tallow, a West Palm Beach-based tallow skin care company.
Cameron Falls, owner of Beauregard’s Fine Meats & Butchery, agrees. The Boca Raton butcher shop has seen a steady increase in customers asking for beef tallow. He sources it directly from a small Florida family farm where the cattle are grass-raised and grass-finished, meaning the animals are raised on pasture and, before they’re slaughtered, are fed a nutrient-rich grass rather than the traditional grain mixture used to boost calories and, thus, fat marbling. It’s hard to know where the grain, or feed, in a conventional operation is coming from and what chemicals it’s been exposed to, he explains.
Another key point is that solely suet tallow—the fat around the rib cage and kidneys—should be used. These are key distinctions that both Falls and Hedendal stress. This highly prized, nutrient-dense fat is rich in vitamins and essential fatty acids, so, as a customer, it’s essential to know exactly where your tallow is coming from—whether you’re eating it or lathering up with it.
Several local restaurants incorporated beef tallow into their kitchens long before this resurgence. Charm City Burger Co., a Broward staple focused on quality beef for nearly 20 years, opened its second outpost in Boca a few months ago. It transitioned to tallow nearly two years ago. “The flavor is much better, and with vegetable and seed oils, you really don’t know what you’re getting in the fryer oil,” says co-owner Mike Saperstein. They’ve kept sunflower oil in one of their fryers as a vegan alternative. For Saperstein, his favorite fries are deep-fried in tallow, and he loves searing steaks in it at home. If you’ve cooked with butter or vegetable oil, you can cook with tallow. Saperstein also co-owns Sunshine Provisions, a meat purveyor for local restaurants that’s also seen an increase in tallow orders.
Other Restaurants Cooking with Tallow:
- Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen
- Café Bastille
- Palm Beach Meats
- Stage
- Pluma Fried Chicken
- Taquiza Tacos
- Tryst
The 411 on Tallow Skin Care
Eruch Hedendal, whose passion is healing skin ailments with his body butters and face balms, lays out the pros and cons of tallow.
PRO: It’s more bioavailable and better matches our sebum, or our skin’s natural oil production, than other plant-based oils.
CON: The problem, Hedendal explains, is that the skin care industry is unregulated, and some tallow on the shelves comes from other rendered fats (not suet) that can clog pores and leave you feeling greasy with a beefy smell.
PRO: Hedendal sources his tallow from trusted farms and creates products free of preservatives, water, alcohol, and other hormone disruptors. He blends them with quality essential oils or botanical infusions to create organic, gentle and nourishing moisturizers known to help with a variety of skin ailments. “Tallow is your new aloe,” he jests. ancienttallow.com
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