Sideways Grind for Tallow!

The other day some strip loins were getting tidied up before they were cut into steaks.

Once all was said and done, there was a total of 15lbs. no longer connected to the strip loins. Mostly fat, but some meat to be sure.

Strip loin...lets say those are $5 a pound (ha ha ha):

15lbs x $5.00/lb = $75.00

Is that really true? Does that kind of thing happen at all kinds of restaurants all over the Okanagan, day in and day out?

I brought the trim home, mostly to use the old school Spong No. 8 meat grinder my neighbour gave me. Good times! Easy too! Why in the world do restaurants buy pre-ground beef? Can we stop that? Can we stop that right now?

Once beef (and beef fat) were ground, it was in to the pot to render.

Of that 15 lbs of trim? 5 lbs of meat, 10 pounds of tallow.

YEAH TALLOW!
YEAH BEEFTALLOW.COM!

Tallow!
Tallow!
Tallow!
Tallow!
Tallow!
Tallow!

There has been some speculation that my new found zeal for tallow is going to cause my heart to explode. I'm not so sure of that. I think tallow has gotten a bad rap. Sally Fallon, bless her soul, seems to think tallow is a "stable" oil for frying fries. And we all love fries. Best of all, tallow's smoke point is 420 degrees. And I'm not making that up!

Is tallow the only local cooking fat? It is looking more and more like local beef is becoming a reality in the Okanagan--in which instance it would be foolish and totally uncool not to render precious, locally grown beef fat into local beef tallow (with which to make local fries.) That is, until someone finally gets the Okanagan grape seed oil situation happening. Until then, Okanagan Beef Tallow is the only truly local cooking fat available to those of us in the Okanagan who care about that kind of thing.

And there's nothing wrong with that!