Suet

Suet, to put it simply, is the Rolls Royce of beef fat.

There are two types of beef fat. Ordinary Beef fat (like the fat you’d see on a Fore rib) and Suet – which has a higher melting and smoke point than regular fat. 

But, before you can use either for cooking, they need to be melted – and turned into Tallow. And that’s easy to do. 

There's a bit of confusion about Tallow.

Technically, Tallow is made from Suet, while beef Dripping is made from ordinary Beef fat. Nowadays though, the word Tallow seems to apply to both.

Which means the texture of Tallow – and its cooking qualities – varies depending on which type of fat is used. Suet or Beef fat.

Suet's superior.

It produces a mild tasting Tallow with excellent cooking qualities as well as a much longer shelf life. It's a buttery white colour and has a bland, clean taste with no overtly detectable smell.  

Great for cooks

The mild flavour of Suet is well suited for cooking 

It’s versatile and adds moisture to any sweet or savoury dish. It's also the magic ingredient in mince pies at Christmas. It's there in the pastry as well as the mince.

Up to the mid 1900's it was a staple ingredient of just about every kitchen. Until chemically treated vegetable oils began to edge it aside.

And that's a shame, because one of the benefits of Suet is that it stays firm at room temperature – which makes it much easier to handle. And it lends a spongy, light texture to pie crusts, dumplings and pastries – because it's far less greasy than butter or – heaven forbid – Margarine.

But where Suet shines brightest is frying. You can fry virtually anything in Suet. And it makes amazingly tasty chips and roast potatoes. Thanks, in part, to its high smoke point (205°C) and also its neutral flavour.

Better still, after you've finished frying, you simply filter it, put it back in the pot – and use it again the next time you need it. You can re-use Suet Tallow up to 8 times.