Animal fat is no garbage: At least that is what the recent studies say. If one analyzes the use of fats in the food items in America, one can identify that most of the current food items are rich only in unsaturated fat or vegetable oils. The whole fast food industry now runs on vegetable oil and not on animal fat. With too much of processing, the United States food industry has eliminated saturated fats from the palates of people. Then, why do people of this century are prone to increased number of heart problems than their ancestors (who were nothing but meat eaters)? If meat like tallow or lard was the cause for coronary heart disease, then why do people who don’t take meat fall victims to it?

There are several rebuttals against the myths that claim saturated fats to be the primary reasons for heart attacks. As a saturated fat, beef tallow is especially very beneficial to human body. Here are a few reasons why it is good to health:

1. Saturated fats are heart-killers: Studies prove that saturated fats have nothing do with heart problems. The Framingham Heart study states that the more saturated fat and the more cholesterol one ate, the lower the person’s serum or blood cholesterol. It also asserts that the people who ate most saturated fat were the least in weight and were physically very active. Another Harvard based study (in 2001) says, “The amount of saturated fat in the diet may have little if any bearing on the risk of heart disease.” A study by Weston A. Price Foundation on the Masai tribes in Africa too proves the same. The Masai men, born meat-eaters, are one of the leanest and most active people among the African tribes. They had the lowest cholesterol levels inspite of taking 60 percent saturated fats daily. However, it was noted that when the Masai men moved to cities and ate modern processed food, they became obese and developed higher rates of cholesterol.

2. Heart fat and beef fat don’t go together: The Framingham study as mentioned in the book Nourishing Traditions states that the fat in the heart muscles is exactly similar to the one present in beef. Unlike the general assumption that too much of this fat will lead to the clogging of arteries, it has been proved that the human heart needs such fat like tallow to keep itself hale and healthy.

3. Saturated fats spoil us: No. In fact, saturated fats are no more in our food. If one looks at the top fats eaten in the 19th century, one can find butter, coconut oil, lard, tallow and olive oil. If one looks at the top fats eaten today, one can find only corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil, safflower oil and olive oil and none of the saturated fats. This shows that inspite of eliminating saturated fats like tallow from food, people have become victims of CHD. This brings us to the conclusion that heart diseases are in no way linked to saturated fats like beef tallow.

4. Tallow is unhealthy: Not at all. As a saturated fat, tallow is an energy-giving food with many antimicrobial properties. With about 50% monosaturated fat, it has a positive impact on cancer and reduces carcinogenic cell growth. Grass-fed beef fat has high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is good for cholesterol levels.

Why tallow for cooking? Tallow is an extremely stable fat and has a high smoke point. Due to its high degree of saturation (56%) and low level of polyunsaturated fatty acids (3%) it is ideal for deep frying and cooking. But with the invasion of hydrogenated vegetable cooking oils, tallow cooking has been pushed to the back burner. Several studies that analyzed heart disease in the early 20th century claimed that saturated fats were responsible for high rate of heart diseases. Immediately, there was a wave of change in American cooking habits and people shifted to vegetable, unsaturated fatty oils. The fast food industry aggravated the change with production of a series of popular, vegetable oil food items. However, recent discoveries reveal that saturated fats have little role to play in causing Coronary Heart Diseases (CHDs). It has been proved by few that the fat surrounding the human heart is similar to that of beef fat and that the heart needs at least 50% of saturated fats to sustain itself in a hale and healthy manner.

With so much confusion about whether or not saturated fats should be avoided, you might wonder why one should risk one’s life taking tallow. The reason is simple – tallow has its own set of benefits which cannot be offered by items cooked in hydrogenated or processed vegetable oils. Here are a few health benefits of using beef tallow in cooking:

1. Stable, not easily rancid: Tallow is stable at room temperature and does not generally go rancid quickly. It has a high shelf life if rendered free of impurities. Added to that, it can be used for any sort of deep frying (like pure olive oil) as it has a high smoke point compared to other oils or fats.

2. Bone health: Framingham study mentioned in the ‘Nourishing Traditions’ (a book) points out that at least 50% of the dietary fats should be saturated. This is because calcium can be be effectively incorporated into the skeletal structure only in the presence of saturated fats.

3. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): Recent research points out that conjugated linoleic acid or CLA is a potent cancer fighter and fights all three stages of cancer – initiation, promotion and metastasis. Since most anti-cancer agents block only one of these stages, the high concentration levels of CLA present in grass-fed beef tallow can help in preventing and fighting cancer in humans.

4. Immunity builder: Tallow is a great immunity builder owing to its antimicrobial properties. When used in cooking, it can give instant energy to the body as a saturated fat.

5. Omega-3 retainer: Beef tallow retains Omega-3s in tissues than many other hydrogenated oils or animal fats. This is another plus to tallow as it accomplishes this only on account of its composition as a saturated fat.

Soap making crossed continents and reached Arabian and middle east regions too. The Palestinians used soap in the 7th century. At the same time, the people of current Iraq learned the art and used soaps as part of daily routine. The first producers of soap in Europe were the Italians and the Spanish. They made and sold soaps around the 8th century. Around 14th century, most of the European countries were into the soap business, most prominent amongst them were the French and the British. From the 18th century onwards, soap making became an industrial product. Several factories were set up to make and sell soaps commercially.

Tallow soap making: All through the medieval times, beef tallow and other fats (like lard) were used in soap making. Only later, vegetable oils (like olive oil) were used in soap making. Recreating a medieval soap is not that difficult. If you want to use a medieval soap, here are a few tips. Follow the instructions carefully and create an exact replica of a soap used by our ancestors:

Medieval soap making tips: The European version of soap making is different from the Arabian or the other versions. The European version used mostly animal fat for soap making. Here’s a glimpse:

1. Things you will need: Ashes from burnt logs, fine-meshed sieves or wickerwork with tiny withies, pot, beef tallow, lime, large spoon, olive oil or wheat flour (optional), knife or spatula-like thing.

2. Clean your pot and place it under wickerwork or sieve. Beforehand, spread the ashes you have got into the wickerwork or sieve. Pour hot water over the ashes so that it gently drips into the pot. Heat such collected water (it is actually lye water). Pour water over and over the same ashes to strengthen the lye water and improve its color.

3. When you are done with the making of lye water, boil it till it thickens. Add beef  tallow and stir very well. If you can, add lime to the mixture.

4. Allow lye mixture with tallow to boil until you get a stable thickness. Allow the mixture to cool and work the soap with spade for two to four days until it is completely de-watered or coagulated.

5. Once everything is over, you can cut the hard soap into pieces that are convenient for your use. You can even add wheat flour along with tallow. If you want, you can replace the tallow with olive oil and follow the same procedures.

1. Tallow comes with regulated quality: Tallow production is monitored federally in the United States. This regulation of quality and composition is not available to many oils or other fats. Also, tallow has a titer of less than 40 degree Celsius. This makes tallow solid or semi solid at room temperature, thereby making it suitable for all types of uses.

2. Tallow is an energy source: Used most widely in North America and Europe, beef tallow is basically used to enhance food texture, flavor or a high-energy or high-vitamin source. It would greatly assist pets as it aids in the production of energy.

3. Tallow is palatable by pets: Unlike other fats, lard or mutton fat, beef tallow is easily palatable by cats and dogs. Mutton or lamb tallow is not palatable due to their peculiar aroma, but beef tallow which has a mild aroma is easily palatable by pets. Also, it has a digestibility of 97% or better in spite of being a highly saturated fat.

4. Tallow’s nutritional value: Many think that tallow has high risk of cholesterol or coronary heart disease on account of its heavy fat content. The saturated and trans fats in tallow, and the lipoprotein hypothesis project a false idea of beef tallow as food that is hazardous to health. Wrong. Coronary heart disease is not a concern for pets and is definitely not a health hazard in your cat or dog.

5. Tallow and polyunsaturated fatty acids: Some studies prove that polyunsaturated fats in essential fatty acids like linoleic acid (LA), omega-3 fatty acids like linoleic (ALA), eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids are useful in treating inflammatory diseases and in neurological development of dogs and cats. Beef tallow does not contain much of these acids, but its nutritional value is sufficient for safe use as a pet food ingredient. Tallow contains 3% of LA and 0.6% of ALA.

6. Tallow’s shelf life is longer: Tallow has a longer shelf life compared to other animal fats. It is stable at room temperature and requires less antioxidant preservatives to achieve shelf life. The linoleic acid present in tallow, it is found out, has the potential to fight cancer.

7. Tallow is pretty cheap: Tallow is used in pet food industry primarily due its cheap availability. It is not as costlier as other fats or oils and is also a better competitor in terms of digestibility and palatability in pets. So, no wonder, it is used widely in the pet food industry.

Light was almost unheard of, but for the oiled lamps and crude fireplaces. Only much later, candles came into being. If one looks into the annals of the 17th century, candlesticks or chandeliers were uncommon among people. Even the wealthiest had only a few candlesticks to brag about. A study on a Dutch household inventoried between 1698 to 1840 lists no chandeliers or lighting equipments of better sort, except tallow candles. Domestic lighting improved with years. With the dawn of the 19th century, every home had its own stack of candles.

Primitive tallow candles: Primitive candles were nothing but a wick of several loosely twisted threads encrusted with tallow. Coarse cotton thread was used as wick to hold the tallow wax. The tallow candles were unruly and flickered time and again. Since the wicks were not self-consuming, the burnt wicks had to be cut every time the tallow candle flared up or flickered. Farmers or poor people who did not have enough wealth to kill cows for tallow, used candle-berry tree, also called as tallow shrub for making candles. The defect with these tallow shrub candles were, they did not soften or bend as easily as regular tallow candles. However, they burned brightly without foul odors. Tallow candles were considered as a possession till the late 18th century.

Old-time tallow candle making: Only rendered animal fat was used in candle making and mutton or pig fat was considered inappropriate compared to beef fat. This candle beef fat was scraped off generally from the butcher’s. Fatty matter that was scraped off at the tanner’s place had lowest content of usable tallow, while that which was directly obtained from the butcher’s had prime tallow. Nothing of the beef fat was wasted as women used almost all available, usable tallow in candle or soap making. Generally, tallow was made in the following method:

1. Rendering of tallow: Women melted the fatty mass in an iron pot over low fire. As the fat melted, they skimmed of the meat fragments and other impurities. After several hours of boiling, cracklings or other unwanted floating chunks were removed through sieving. Since tallow hardened at room temperature, women added water to the sieved, pure liquid and boiled it again in low temperature. Only after several hours of further boiling, the mixture was allowed to cool in an earthen pot. The cooled mixture formed a pure white tallow on top, with gelatin and other sediments below. The obtained tallow cake was used in candle making along with beeswax.

2. Two types of candles: An encyclopedist in 1849 wrote, “there were two types of tallow candles – dipped and molded. While the dipped are of old standing, the latter are said to be the invention of a Parisian”. Dipped candles were used in domestic lighting as they required no special expenses. A number of dipping rods, each holding 12 to 15 wicks were prepared in advance. Each wick was then dipped in melted tallow and allowed to cool. The process was continued till the tallow candle gained its desired size. Molded candles were a French invention, where people poured tallow wax  into molds to make candles.

3. Candle recipe: A candle recipe of the bygone eras read like this: Dissolve 25 lbs. of beef tallow in a copper or brass vessel by adding 20 lbs of water. Add 1-1/2 qt of brandy, 5 oz of tartar cream, 5 oz of ammoniac solution, 5 oz of tartar salt, 2 oz of dry and clean potash to the mixture. Once completely heated, cut the cake into slivers and allow to cool. Make wicks of best cotton steeped in wine or wax. Then, pour heated tallow in the moulds with wicks. Allow the mould to cool and then, shape your candles for use.

A legend has it that soap was actually “discovered” after heavy rain saturated in the slopes of Mount Sapo, an ancient site of many animal sacrifices, where rain, ash and fat had mixed to form soap. It is said that the soap thus formed drained down from the slopes on the banks of the Tiber river where washerwomen were laundering clothes. The mixture that flowed cleaned the clothes immediately much to the surprise of the women. Then was born, the cleansing agent call soap.

Soap making precautions: Soap making is not as easy as it sounds. You can lose track of the process or hurt yourself if you are not careful of what is to be done. This is especially true when it comes to making soaps by mixing tallow and lye. The following precautions may help if you are new to soap making:

1. Read instructions for the soap recipe to make sure you have the required ingredients. Get ready with all the gear you require.

2. Arrange in order of use the ingredients and the equipments you require. You would definitely need the following – two heavy plastic pitchers, one big stainless steel container or pot, safety goggles, neoprene or rubber gloves, heavy apron, stick blender (to blend the mixture), soap molds, gallons of water, heating or cooling equipment, wooden spoon, weighing scales, tallow, lye crystals and fragrances or other fats (if required).

3. Read all the safety precautions and familiarize yourself with the tallow soap recipe before you start anything. This would avoid wasting precious time in looking up for instructions over and over again.

Soap making process: You need to prepare soap with the utmost precaution. This is because the lye used in soap making has caustic properties which can damage your skin or your house. Here’s a step-by-step procedure of how to make soap:

4. Use diet scales to weight both the empty pitchers. Then, add water in one of the pitchers and weigh it. Make sure your water is very cold, because mixing it with lye may cause a sudden rise in temperature. This can be avoided if the water is cold.

5. Put on your rubber gloves and goggles and weigh the lye using the diet scales. Then, go out of the house and slowly pour the lye into the water pitcher. While doing so, stir the water to keep the lye from solidifying. Cover yourself completely during this step as lye can be harmful. You can use a wooden spoon to mix lye with water. Don’t pour everything all of a sudden. Pour gradually, as spilling may cause serious effects in the place around.

6. Take tallow and weigh it with diet scales. Heat it to get the desired temperature. When both the lye water and the tallow are in the desired temperature, pour the lye into melted tallow.

7. Continue to stir to avoid splashing. To ensure total absorption of the lye into the fat, you should keep stirring and for about 15 to 20 minutes non-stop. As the mixture thickens and becomes opaque, you can see “traces” of the saponification process. However, there can also be a false trace sometimes. It may even take hours to find real traces, depending upon the ingredients you use. Wait with patience for your soap to form.

8. Once the soap reaches the trace stage, you can slowly add fragrance or other fats if required. Colorings, if needed, should be added at this stage. Allow the mixture to cool and then, later cut them into bars for use.

Soap recipes: Soaps are generally formed when animal fat (tallow) is combined with caustic agents like lye (sodium hydroxide) with water as a catalyst. Since you are using a caustic agent, you need to be careful during the soap making process. Here are a few easy recipes for making soaps:

1. Basic Soap: Before you start, get to know the basic procedures involved in soap making. This includes preparation of lye water and then blending it with the melted tallow. To prepare the basic soap, you need the following ingredients:

• 32 oz of blended vegetable oil or olive oil
• 74 oz tallow fat (beef fat)
• 3 oz cocoa butter
• 14 oz lye
• 41 oz cold water (rainwater or distilled water)

To make this basic soap, follow the usual soap making instructions. Prepare your lye solution and then slowly pour it into oils while stirring. Then allow to cool and follow the other saponification instructions. You will get a soap that has creamy bubbles and rich lather, but is mild and soft. If cured, this soap will turn hard.

2. Clear soap: To kick start soap making, you will need the following:

• 1 cup of beef tallow
• 2/3 cup glycerin
• 1 cup of melted coconut oil or olive oil
• Adequate water (rainwater or distilled)
• lye flakes
• 1 cup isopropyl alcohol

Start with melting the tallow and coconut or olive oil. Cool to a lukewarm temperature and float the pan of oil in a warm bath. Then, prepare lye solution by stirring it into cold water. Once the lye solution is ready, pour it slowly into the melted tallow and allow it to emulsify. Add glycerin and then pour into mold greased with petroleum jelly. After about 3 or 4 days, grate the formed-soap into top of double boiler and begin heating soap over gently boiling water with some alcohol. If you find traces, remove from heat and pour into molds. You will get a clear soap that cleanses everything pretty well.

3. Pure Tallow Soap: This would bring a pure white tallow soap with rich and creamy lather. Your will need the following for this soap:

• 64 oz tallow
• 24 fluid oz distilled water
• 8.5 oz lye

Making a tallow soap is the easiest. You need to follow the basic soap making procedures and prepare your lye solution. Once that is done, heat your tallow and pour lye water into it slowly. When the soap starts to saponify, you can find trace formation. The end result: you will get a pure tallow soap with good cleansing properties.

The article briefs on how, with the dawn of the 20th century, the United States had to grapple with the sad truth of the growing number of coronary heart disease or CHD which caused more than 30% of deaths at that time. Similarly, Myocardial Infarction (MI) or a massive blood clot in the coronary artery leading to death, claimed more than 3000 deaths in 1930 and about 500,000 deaths in 1960. Scientists at that time were gripped by the devastating statistics of deaths, and wondered what caused such sudden changes in American lifestyles? They found out the truth to hidden in processed vegetable oils. Statistics pointed out that Americans were taking too much of items cooked in vegetable oils instead of the ones cooked with traditional butter, cheese, tallow or lard.

Truth about lipid hypothesis: A theory of lipid hypothesis said that saturated fat and cholesterol from animal fat raise cholesterol levels in the blood, leading to fatty deposits in the arteries and thereby, resulting in fatal conditions like atherosclerosis. This theory was popularized by Kritchevsky, a Russian who conducted cholesterol experiments with rabbits.

Though Kritchevsky’s theory was much publicized, there were several other theories which were less known: A 1955 report revealed that soldiers killed in Korean war showed high levels of atherosclerosis; a 1957 study proved that vegetarians in Bantu had atheroma in arteries just as their meat-eating, fellow people  in South Africa; a 1960 study pointed that even the Japanese who take less animal fat were victims to atherosclerosis; in 1968, an International Atherosclerosis Project involving 22,000 corpses from 14 nations revealed varying degrees of atheroma in all parts of the world. The study revealed and concluded that animal fat had little role to play in atherosclerosis and lipid hypothesis was far from truth.

What’s wrong with vegetable oils? With established proof that atherosclerosis is not a condition associated with animal fat, let’s look into why vegetable oil is not so good for health. Vegetable oils are highly refined, processed, bleached and hydrogenated modern oils with little nutrients. One can spot this difference between processed and natural food by just analyzing between industry butter and grass-fed cow’s butter. The former looks pristine and lily-white but lacks in nutrients, the latter is yellowish and country-like but full of rich vitamins. Since tallow is made from grass-fed cows, it is rich in fat soluble vitamins like vitamin K2. Similarly, the carotene levels of tallow are higher compared to vegetable oils.

Why beef tallow for cooking? Apart from the above reasons, beef tallow has been in use from time immemorial. The traditional French fies made in tallow oil could prevent cavities and osteoporosis (since Vitamin K2 is great for bones and teeth). When people cooked with lard or tallow, cancer and heart attacks were unknown. The recent studies too prove that even the so-called fatty foods can be nourishing and healthy if cooked with the right kind of fat. This is why beef tallow is always much better for cooking than the highly-processed, nutrient-less empty vegetable oil.

Beef Tallow in the making of biodiesel: Beef tallow has gained new life with the discovery of biodiesel using fats and oils. Beef Tallow has grown from the status of an ingredient in cooking, soap making or candle making recipe to that of an important element in industrial applications like the production of rubber, lubricants and fuel. This article will point out the pros, cons and limitations of beef tallow’s future in the biofuel industry.

Pros, cons and limitations: Biodiesel can be easily made from tallow like using very similar processes used in plants to produce plant oil biofuels. Biodiesel is actually produced by what is called the “transesterification” reaction of triglyceride molecules present in beef tallow with alcohol such as methanol in batch processes. Transesterification is actually a stepwise reaction that involves several batch processes in the transformation of animal fat into biodiesel. But there is one hiccup in this transesterification process and that is, batch processing and the economic viability of such processing. Research is on to make this batch processing a continuous process by reducing the production cost and time.

However, on a comparative note, beef tallow is a better producer of biofuel than plant oils. This is because, fuel produced by tallow has a higher cetane number compared to produced from plant oils. Though as triglycerides, animal fats like beef tallow can be used in the production of biodiesel, there are certain structural limitations to the process:

1. Research has shown that using tallow for biodiesel production is not possible without increasing its availability as feedstock. Else, it would affect the other industrial and cosmetic applications of tallow.

2. Tallow biofuel comes with a higher cloud point owing to the presence of higher levels of saturates. Tallow fuel has the tendency to crystallize at higher temperatures (unlike plant oils) and this makes it unsuitable for use during winters.

3. Tallow diesel often meets the required standards only when blended with regular diesel. A 5% mix of regular diesel to the 95% DIN-standard tallow biofuel only makes it appropriate for practical use.

4. The existing process of production of tallow biofuel is a long and strenuous one. Only by reducing the batch processes into an economically viable continuous process, we can make biofuel production using tallow fruitful.

The whole process can be divided into three stages: Skinning, Preparing and Tanning. Below is the step-by-step process on how to make prepare and tan hides (into leather) at your home:

Skinning:

1. Remove the hide from the animal carcass using a skinning knife. Hang the carcass upside down while doing it. Then, attach the skin to a stretching frame and allow it to cool.

2. Once cooled, lay the skin on a flat surface and scrape off all fat or animal substance from the flesh side of the hide. Use a blunt kitchen knife to do this. See to it that you don’t cut or scratch the hide while doing so.

3. After scraping, spread and rub salt on to the flesh side, working it all the way up to the edge of the skin. Use 1 lb. salt for one pound of the hide.

4. Fold the salted sides together and put them on a slope for two to three days to let the liquid drain away. After two days, wipe out old salt and apply new salt and rub thoroughly. Let it remain for another two days and dry. But keep the hide away from direct sunlight.

Preparation before tanning: Before you start the tanning process, you need to prepare the hide for it:

5. Prepare a borax solution with warm, soft water. If you are not able to find soft water, you can collect rainwater and heat it to make it warm. Use 1 oz. of borax per every gallon of warm water. The amount of the solution prepared should fit your hide well.

6. Now, soak the hide in the borax solution for three to five days. Scrape of all the salt before you do so, and keep stirring the solution several times a day with a  wooden paddle or a stick (if it suffices the purpose). After 5 days, remove the hide and rinse well and then, scrape off all fat, flesh and membranes that cover the flesh side of the hide.

7. Prepare a solution with warm soft water and agricultural line. Mix 8 lbs of lime and then soak the hide in it. Let it sit for 3 days to 6 weeks, depending on the conditions of your weather. Stir several times a day and see to it that the hair in the fur side comes out. After this process, remove the hide and place the fur side up and scrape of hair using the blunt side of a fleshing knife. Then, soak the hide again, say for 24 hours in a solution containing warm soft water, 5 oz of lactic acid and 2 ½ qt of vinegar. After 24 hours, clean the hide in clean water.

Tanning process: Tanning is a difficult process and this is where you need beef tallow:

8. Prepare a solution with water, salt (½ lb for every gallon of water) and sulphuric acid (½ oz for every gallon of water) and soak the hide for 3 days. After the period, lift the hide and rinse it in clean water several times.

9. Next, rinse the hide in a solution of borax (2 lbs for every 40 gallons of water) and then, soak it overnight.

10. Take it out of borax solution and apply a thin layer of oil to the hide. Wipe off excess oil and work on it till the hide is soft and supple.

11. Mix l lb of beef tallow and 1 lb of Neat’s foot oil and apply it to the fur side of the hide. Work on it several times to soften the leather.

12. Last, rub both the sides of the leather with fine sandpaper to smoothen the surface and make it more supple. Once all these are done, your hide will be ready for use as leather.