Hi Kirsten,
Thank you for your question! That’s great you have a good source of suet from a farm! Rendering tallow, especially if you are trying to get a good yield and a pure cosmetic grade product, can be a time consuming process. But it is worth it!

There are two kinds of suet (cow fat that hasn’t been rendered yet) you will get from cows, leaf fat (the fat around the kidneys) and fat from trimming other areas. The leaf fat is the least “meaty” tasting and produces the purest white tallow- ideal for cosmetic use. The other trimmings make great cooking grade tallow, but you could try purifying them and see if they smell suitable for cream. When I make tallow from my cow that I get from my rancher, I make a batch of cosmetic grade tallow as well as jars of cooking tallow.

The leaf fat has a cellophane like net of fascia that holds it together, not many tendons or veins or other connective tissue. The best way to deal with that is: work with the fat while cold (either frozen or refrigerated), trim any veins or meaty bits off. Cut the suet into chunks, and try peeling as much of the fascia/cellophane stuff off the fat as you can. Don’t worry about it if you can’t get it all. Then, cut the suet into medium sized chunks and put them in your food processor. Process the suet until it makes pea sized or smaller bits of fat. Then render the fat into tallow using either the wet or dry method.

Just as there are two kinds of suet, there are also two ways to render the tallow, dry and wet. The dry render just uses low heat to melt the tallow and then strains out the solids. Here is a good page that describes this process: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2012/02/how-to-render-beef-tallow.html.

The wet render uses water with salt to further purify the tallow and keep it from getting too hot. This is the method I use for cosmetic tallow because it results in the pure, white, practically odor- free tallow, especially if you do it more than one time around. Here is the resource I used to figure this process out: https://bumblebeeapothecary.com/how-to-render-and-purify-tallow-so-that-it-is-odorless-and-white/. Though she doesn’t use a food processor- I have found it is best to process the pieces first because it gives the most yield.

So, I use the leaf fat and do a wet render for cosmetic tallow. Trim off any meat, blood, blood vessels, etc., first. Put those, plus all the other suet trimmings that are more “meaty”, in a pot to do dry render to use for cooking and frying.

Since you’ve already tried to melt the fat, just freeze it again and then start the process as I describe above.

The “cracklins” are the bits that don’t melt that you strain out at the end of the process. They are good to eat with a bit of salt on their own or in salads, you can fry them a bit more in a skillet if they aren’t crispy enough 😉

Hope this helps!
Deanna, Honest Body Assistant

Hi Holly,
Mine has kept for a year once made, though I imagine it depends on the essential oils used (some may be more preservative than others). Tallow can go rancid unrefrigerated, however (and mine did within 1 year unfortunately and now has a mild soapy smell, so I still intend to use it for cosmetics but not cooking. Our pantry is too warm with the wood stove going all winter.) Perhaps the safest thing to do would be to refrigerate creams that you don’t intend on using within the next 3 months or so.

Warmly,
Deanna HB Assistant and Certified GAPS Coach

Hi Cass,
Thanks for your question! Though I do recommend Fatworks or Millers Organic farm for tallow to eat, I don’t have a specific one for cosmetic purposes. You could try ordering from them and see how it smells. It would be much easier to purify their rendered tallow using the water and salt method here on bumblebee apothecary than doing it from scratch: https://bumblebeeapothecary.com/how-to-render-and-purify-tallow-so-that-it-is-odorless-and-white/.

I did see some on Etsy, you could try that. Here is the brand of skin care products Melanie likes that already have tallow as an ingredient if you prefer to go that route: https://primallypure.com/blogs/blog/beef-tallow-what-it-is-and-why-your-skin-needs-it.

Let us know if you do find a source that works for you!

Warmly,
Deanna
Certified GAPS Coach and HB Assistant

So glad it was useful!

Warmly,
Deanna
Certified GAPS Coach and HB Assistant