Tallow made by rendering calf suet

Rendered fat obtained from pigs is known as lard.

Uses

It is used in animal feed, to make soap, for cooking, and as a bird food. It can be used as a raw material for the production of biodiesel and other oleochemicals. Historically, it was used to make tallow candles, which were a cheaper alternative to wax candles.

Industrially, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain technical criteria, including its melting point, which is also known as titre. It is common for commercial tallow to contain fat derived from other animals, such as pigs.

Before switching to pure vegetable oil in 1990, McDonald's corporation cooked its french fries in a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil.^[1]

Tallow is used in the steel rolling industry to provide the required lubrication as the sheet steel is compressed through the steel rollers. There is a trend towards replacing tallow based lubrication with synthetic oils in rolling applications for surface cleanliness reasons.^[2]

Tallow can also be used as flux for soldering.^[3]

Tallow is also the primary ingredient in Proofide, a leather dressing made especially for Brooks leather bicycle saddles, in combination with cod oil, vegetable oil, paraffin wax, beeswax, and citronella oil.

Composition

The composition of the fatty acids is typically as follows:^[4]

• Saturated fatty acids:
  • Palmitic acid: 26 %
  • Stearic acid: 14 %
  • Myristic acid: 3 %
• Monounsaturated fatty acids:
  • Oleic acid: 47 %
  • Palmitoleic acid: 3 %
• Polyunsaturated fatty acids:
  • Linoleic acid: 3 %
  • Linolenic acid: 1 %

References

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