Uses for Beef Fat?

[old smokey nj]

Hello all,

My wife just bought a 10 pound brisket (Cap-on). I'm going to trim some of the fat, but don't want to just throw the fat out. I have saved pork fat for making sausages before, but not sure if the beef fat is worth saving. Has anyone out there saved it for anything - if so, please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[old smokey nj]

Meant "10 pound"....

 

[biteme7951]

I personally don't know about the cooking options for the beef fat as I use pork fat in my recipes, but rendered down and mixed with bird seed makes a nice treat for our feathered friends. I saved the fat from the 2 deer I got this year and made enough suet cakes to last the rest of the winter.

Barry.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Its good mixed with sausages mostly venison.

Warren

 

[pineywoods]

I prefer beef fat when making venison sausage or venison burger

 

[bregent]

I use it for sausage but also make tallow, which is great for frying: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/tallow.272882/

 

[KrisUpInSmoke]

You can render the fat into beef tallow and use it for multiple things. https://www.mommypotamus.com/how-to-render-tallow/

You can make a hot water crust for meat pie with the tallow, like https://food52.com/blog/18266-hot-w...tchable-pie-crust-your-deep-dish-pies-deserve

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Oh my god Kris..

Yah what Kris said, that hot water crust? That is some of the best pie crust you'll ever have.

 

[bvbull200]

I use it for sausage but also make tallow, which is great for frying: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/tallow.272882/

Came to post just that. Rendered it down, then make the best damned french fries you've ever had!

 

[tallbm]

Hello all,

My wife just bought a 10 pound brisket (Cap-on). I'm going to trim some of the fat, but don't want to just throw the fat out. I have saved pork fat for making sausages before, but not sure if the beef fat is worth saving. Has anyone out there saved it for anything - if so, please let me know.

Thanks!

Hi there and welcome!
If you hunt the beef fat is great for mixing with wild game meat since animals like deer and feral hogs don't have much fat. In TX there are plenty of sausages made with a mixture of beef and pork so having the beef fat helps there.

I personally save my beef fat to mix with pure ground venison to make Venison Pastrami sandwich meat. I go 80% Venison and 20% Beef fat (4 pounds venison meat and 1 pound beef fat). I grind it up, season it, form into rectangular loaves, smoke, and slice for pastrami sandwich meat that is AMAZING!!!

Another idea is to save you about 4-5 pounds of beef fat if you make any kind of all beef sausage. Beef is so expensive that you may be able to find leaner/cheaper cuts on sale and still have enough saved beef fat to grind it all up at 80% meat and 20% fat ratios without having to spend more money than necessary. You could make all beef franks, kielbasa, brats, bologna, summer sausage, etc. etc.

Once a year I have a big sausage making under taking and that is when having 3-5 pounds of beef fat comes in handy. I hope this info helps :)

 

[SonnyE]

Pioneers used it to lube their wagon wheels....

 

[old smokey nj]

Thanks so much everyone! I never thought to use it for venison sausage, which I always have used pork fat for. My kids can't wait for the french fries!

And "TALLBM" I've thought many times about making beef franks for my kids. They love these and it kills me to think of the garbage in the store bought ones. Your suggestion was a "sign" to me to give it a try!

I can't stand to throw anything out, and I will now use all the fat for something. Thanks everyone for your help, as always!

 

[phrogpilot73]

Costco's eye of rounds are pretty cheap, cube it and alternate running it through a grinder with eye of round. Good quality ground beef that way.

 

[old smokey nj]

Costco's eye of rounds are pretty cheap, cube it and alternate running it through a grinder with eye of round. Good quality ground beef that way.

Do you mean for beef franks?

 

[LanceR]

We use pork fat for venison sausage that would normally have been made from rk and use beef fat for sausages that would normally have been made with beef. We also use beef fat for venison burger.

Another thought would be to dice it in 1/2" (12mm) chunks and render it. The use the dripping for Yorkshire pudding and fry the cracklings a bit more to make killer salad toppings....

While I haven't yet tried it the thought occurs me that a teaspoon or so of beef fat drippings in the bottom of each popover pan hole would let you make mini Yorkshire puddings instead of using a whole roasting pan.....

 

[tallbm]

Costco's eye of rounds are pretty cheap, cube it and alternate running it through a grinder with eye of round. Good quality ground beef that way.

That is a great idea! Get the least expensive beef that is also super lean and add the pure beef fat to get your 80/20 meat to fat ratio!

Do you mean for beef franks?

What phrogpilot suggests is what I would do to make all beef franks. I would buy the least expensive beef per pound I could get my hands on and eye of round seems like one good option. Eye of round seems to be roughly 7% fat.

The ACCURATE calculation for how much pure fat to add to make 20 pounds of sausage is NOT intuitive, meaning 20 pounds of eye or round x 20% will NOT give you the correct beef fat number you need and is a common calculation error. For simplicity and accuracy I have done the math for what it takes to make 20 pounds of sausage using eye of round that contains 7% fat and the extra 13% of pure beef fat need to get an 80% meat 20% fat ratio of beef sausage :)

Lets convert to grams so we aren't dealing with pesky pounds and fractions of pounds which are not the same as ounces (.2 pounds does NOT = 2 ounces but is really 3.2 ounces :eek::confused: )
20 pounds sausage is 9071.85 grams (g)

9071.85g of sausage = 7892.5095 eye of round (which has 7% fat included) + 1179.3405 pure beef fat (13% extra fat)

A simple and ACCURATE set of formulas to use going forward when you want to make sausage using eye of round (that contains 7% fat) and pure beef fat to get a sausage of 80% meat and 20% fat ratio is the following:

• #total amount of sausage in grams = ? (meaning figure out how much sausage you want, 5, 10, 15, etc. pounds and convert that to grams)
  
  
• eye of round in grams = #total amount of sausage in grams x .87
  
  
• pure beef fat needed in grams = #total amount of sausage in grams x .13
  
  
• #total amount of sausage in grams = eye of round in grams
  + pure beef fat needed in grams
  
  
  

Example:
I want 20 pounds of sausage which is 9071.85g, so...

eye of round in grams = 9071.85g x .87 = 7892.5095g of eye or round (17.4000049869 pounds = 17 pounds 6.4oz )
pure beef fat needed in grams = 9071.85g x .13 = 1179.3405g of beef fat (2.6 pounds = 2 pounds 9.6 ounces)
So 17 pounds 6.4 oz (7892.5095g)
+ 2 pounds 9.6 oz (1179.3405)
= 20 pounds of sausage (9071.85g)!

I know the math lesson is more than people bargained for but I wanted to ensure things were accurate and backed up hahaha.

So I hope this helps explain what you can do to make all beef franks with your saved beef fat :)

 

[old smokey nj]

Thanks for that info TALLBM. Glad someone can do the math and make it easy for everyone else!!!! I saved your formula and gonna give them beef franks a shot!

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for that info TALLBM. Glad someone can do the math and make it easy for everyone else!!!! I saved your formula and gonna give them beef franks a shot!

Glad I could help!
Also LEM's Backwoods Cured Franks seasoning makes the best all pork franks I have ever eaten across our planet!!!
I'm sure it would be a good starting place for you until you decide if you want to branch out and try to make your own frank seasoning or use a recipe you find somewhere. It can be a little salty so make all your measurements very scant, no heaping it on at all.
This year I made the LEM's Franks and I used another recipe that was supposed to be an award winner and the LEM's seasoning blew the other ones out of the water. The other recipe wasn't bad it just was no comparison to the LEM's flavor.

I hope this info helps!

 

[old smokey nj]

Good to know - thanks for the heads up!