Smoked “liquid gold” from dry aged beef

Fat: Garbage or gold?
Do you still fry your steaks or burgers in butter or oil? Do you trim away all unwanted fat and throw it in the garbage, and then in the can and it will disappear with the renovator on Monday next week? Not after trying this awsome tallow!

What you need:

Left overs and use of the WHOLE animal
I finally got to taste the wonderful T-bone rack from the dairy cow I dry aged. Dry ageing comes with a price. You lose a lot of weight and there is a lot of waste in the form of trimming fat and pellicle. With the exception of the pellicle (some use this too), good subject for dry ageing are often primals with a lot of extra fat that are great at making tallow. So when I trimmed all the bark, my T-bones still had a great fat cap, and in the dry ageing process it’s the fat that develops the most flavor. In other words: it is stupid to throw this away (we use it a bit more before it goes in the garbage can) I also made burgers with this fat, but still I had a lot to spare.

Here is how you do it
As you may have noticed in the list of ingredients, there is not much you need. But it does take some time. You may want to skip the smoking process, but if you have time, the flavor of the finished product is amazing. Cut the fat into small pieces, Put a saucepan / pot right on the grate in your smoker and place a grate over the pot. Put the pieces of fat on the grate, but make sure they are over the pot so the grease will drain into the pot and not into your smoker. Leave some space between the chunks so that the smoke suround all bits. If any bits fall into the pot, you just leave them there. Set the smoker to 225-250°F. Leave the fat in the smoke for 1-2 hours. Then put all the pieces into the pot and put the lid on (you can still leave it on the smoker or, continue in the oven. You do not need more smoke when the lid is on the pot anyway). Leave the fat to simmer for a few more hours. If you have the time and opportunity to do so, you can leave it for 7-8 hours or even over night , but 2-3 hours is good enough.

Remove the chunks
When the fat has been left to simmer for a few hours. Then you pour the liquid gold you have now created into another container. Pass the liquid through the strainer a few times, or if you are extra picky, pass it through a coffee filter. I am not so picky, and strained it 2 times through the sieve for. Now you are left with a golden liquid that is amazing to cook with! True, this liquid will solidify to white when cooled down again, but it is still gold! Pour into an airtight container and place in the refrigerator, or freeze in an ice cube tray, then you will have portions available. This holds for months in the refrigerator. (The longer you render it, the longer it lasts, but the danger is greater that it will be empty long berfore, it turn rancid)

This is potent stuff
This fat has a very good beefy flavour, and a delicious smoked tone. Now you can, with good conscience, throw the rest of the fat chunks in the garbage. I’m sure that if you give your renovator one glass of this, you won’t have to roll your trash cans all the way to the road in the foreseeable future!