Exposing the Truth About Beef Tallow

We’ve had several inquiries regarding the “smell” of beef tallow recently, and I feel like we need to address these questions and concerns as the world is reintroduced to tallow. There are a couple of points that I’d really like to bring home for you guys to truly understand, because the internet has been lying to you, and so have some tallow producers.

From a manufacturing standpoint, I have to tell you, it blows my mind when I see people jumping on the bandwagon without any real clue about manufacturing tallow and the lies and deceit they buy into from the internet. If you’re buying tallow already rendered and it’s pure white and has ZERO smell to it – I hate to tell you, but you’re not buying pure, unprocessed tallow. You’re likely buying a tallow-based product that has been refined (to remove the smell), likely diluted with other compounds or oils, and it’s also likely to be nutritionally void because of the high heats used in the refining process of mass produced and/or poorly produced tallow. In this case, you may as well be putting vegetable oil on your skin – it’ll be just about as useful.

1) Pure Tallow Smells

So, let’s dive right on into it. If your beef tallow doesn’t smell, it’s not pure, and that’s a fact. Raw, unrefined tallow is going to have a natural smell to it. You’ll see many DIY’ers online that add water to their render to clean up the smell, or use salt, or even use baking soda to remove the smell from tallow. Let me explain to you why these are all bad ideas and result in a refined product that is not only nutritionally void but can also lead to safety issues and skin/health problems over time.

A) Rendering in Water: Rendering in water is a particularly bad idea because as soon as you introduce water – you have created a suitable environment for mold growth and bacteria to form which accelerates rancidity. There are natural wild yeasts in the air all around us that you cannot see. These yeasts will get into the water and tallow mix – there is no avoiding it unless you are in some kind of BSL-4 lab with next level HEPA filters and decontamination procedures (which I highly doubt lol). The problem with this method is that you’ll likely not get 100% of the water content out of the tallow – so now you’ve got a product where bacteria can thrive, and mold will form turning your tallow rancid over a short period of time unless a preservative is added. If you are adding water and preservatives, this is no longer a pure product. A properly completed dry render ensures mold growth cannot naturally occur and rancidity is minimized to incidents of cross contamination.

B) Rendering with Salt: Rendering with salt is a traditional method for aiding in the separating of the fat from the connective tissues which normally sounds great! However, in todays world it’s generally advised against because, for consumption, it can leave the tallow with a salty flavor that many may not want, but more importantly, when used for skincare, the residual salt in the tallow can be drying and/or irritating to the skin, potentially causing discomfort or exacerbating conditions such as eczema or acne. Also, salt is hygroscopic, meaning it attracts and retains water. If not completely removed, residual salt can increase the risk of moisture retention in the tallow, creating conditions where mold or bacteria can grow. Salt can also cause uneven rendering, leading to a grainer or less smooth texture that looks and feel awful – and nobody wants that!

C) Rendering with Baking Soda: Rendering with baking soda is also another method that many DIY’ers seem do but without understanding how the tallow is being compromised. Baking soda negatively impacts the purity, texture, and stability of the tallow overall. It adds a saponification risk as baking soda is highly alkaline. Even small amounts of baking soda can react with the fatty acids of the tallow, forming a soap-like compound that will alter the texture, making the tallow grainy, sticky, or waxy. While baking soda can decrease the beefy smell, it also impacts the flavor if you are looking to consume this heart-healthy product. And again, if you are using it for skincare, as with salt, the residual baking soda in the tallow can be drying and/or irritating to the skin, potentially causing discomfort or exacerbating conditions such as eczema or acne. So just don’t do it.

Rendering with water, salt, or baking soda opens the door to all kinds of risks and potential problems to both the tallow itself as well as the person using the tallow. If you are a small at-home DIY’er then it may not be an issue – but for someone like myself who makes and sells tallow – it absolutely matters for a clean, safe product. A dry render with ZERO additives is absolutely crucial for a safe product – but with that also comes a beefy smell. There is no cutting corners here. We don’t compromise quality. As a consumer, if you’re really concerned about the smell, then tallow may not be for you.

2) Trimmings and Suet are NOT the same

As the title suggests, beef trimmings and beef suet (the raw form of tallow) are not the same. Some people will argue that they are (even some farmers will argue this point) but I’m sorry, they are wrong. They are not the same and using trimmings will affect the quality of the tallow being produced. I’ve talked about this before – beef trimmings will contain more connective tissue, lower nutritional density, and will have a higher moisture content – which leads to mold and bacterial growth as well as accelerating rancidity. If you want a good, clean product – make sure you or your producer is using SUET (which comes from the kidney and loin areas of the animal) and not just low-quality fat trimmings.

3) Tallow IS NOT Vegan

I can’t believe I even have to put this here – but yes, it’s true. Tallow is not a vegan product. It’s fat. From cows. The vegan equivalent of tallow is coconut oil… I guess? No but seriously, this is a question I have been asked, and it blows my mind that people don’t know what tallow even is. They just hear that its great for your skin and they want to try it – then they learn what it is made from, and they are disgusted.

Well, I find it unbelievable how people just go with the flow and do not take a second to do a quick search to educate themselves about this product – then have the audacity to look at me like I’ve done something wrong lol. Anyways, this has nothing to do with smell, but nonetheless, I must put this in here. Tallow is not vegan.

4) Don’t Put Raw Tallow On Your Skin!

So, this is something I generally advise against when my customers ask about my products. Many people put pure tallow directly onto their skin – and while some have zero issues with this – many aren’t so lucky! Tallow is a dense product. Its thick consistency makes it highly occlusive, meaning that it forms a barrier on the skin that traps moisture and can also block pores.

Likewise, tallow’s high viscosity and lack of emulsifiers prevent it from fully absorbing into the skin. This leaves a greasy residue that traps dirt, bacteria, and even sebum (your natural skin oils). This can cause all sorts of problems that tallow is generally praised for fixing!

Lastly, tallow has a higher PH (around 7), whereas your skin prefers a PH closer to 4.5 – 5.5 – so it’s best to mix pure tallow with other compounds into blends such as creams or lotions. This may include adding water with an emulsifier, or using citric acid to alter the PH. This ensures the end product actually has a PH that is similar to our skin’s preference, thereby reducing or eliminating any negative affects on the skin. 

We PH test all our skincare products to ensure a neutral PH that your skin will love, so there is no real reason to put pure tallow on your skin. Our pure tallow is great for someone looking to formulate their own skincare products, or, it could be used in cooking to replace all those seed oils that are bad for your health! At Homestead Gardener, we’ve worked very hard to formulate products that are safe, healthy, and only doing good things for your skin.

6) Wagyu Beef Vs. Grass-Fed Beef

I was recently asked if I had Wagyu beef tallow. I do not. They were advised that it is better for your skin to use wagyu beef tallow. I, very gently, tried to advise the customer that, unfortunately, they had been duped. Wagyu beef tallow has its place when it comes to cooking. It will have a milder flavor, but it will still have a beefy scent, and it does have a lower melting point which is great when cooking with tallow. But for skincare, as this person was looking for, while wagyu beef tallow may produce a softer, creamier product, it’s not as nutritionally dense. Grass-fed tallow is higher in vitamins A, D, E, and K2 – whereas wagyu tallow is not. These are the nutrients we praise for the beauty tallow skincare has afforded many of us. So, we really want this in our tallow if we are making skincare products.

Also, let’s not forget the costs! While there are some Wagyu beef producers in Canada, authentic varieties, such as Japanese A5 Kobe or Miyazaki, are imported and the tallow from all Wagyu beef is extremely expensive and rather unnecessary for skincare usage. Our raw suet is procured from local farmers in our area. We don’t do wagyu because it’s just not worth it, both from a skincare perspective and a cost perspective.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Just a few points that I really wanted to clear up as the internet has a way of making people believe things that are simply not true. So, understand that all tallow is not made equal. Expect REAL PURE tallow to have a smell, don’t put it directly on your skin. Make sure your producer knows the difference between trimmings and suet, and for god’s sake, please know that tallow comes from cows and its not vegan lol. Last but not least, wagyu tallow is a thing – but it’s expensive and not ideal for skincare usage. That is all for now.

Cheers!