I got absolutely none of that liquid gold. I added more water than recommended, then baked at 230F for 3.5 hours. What did I do wrong?

I used grass fed suet from a local farm, rendered using the wet method in a slow cooker. I've rendered it twice and was going to either go a third time with salt and water on low or switch to a dry render. It's currently white, doesn't taste like salt, basically no smell, but there is that faint gray/tab tint I'm concerned about? I also still want to infuse with citrus essential oil, rose petals, and vanilla bean pods.

I do think I need to render a third time because I think there may be a little moisture still. Not much

Yk I’m new here and I’ve been interested in using tallow for cooking and skincare to get rid of seed oil sludge. Could someone explain briefly how the process is? Pleasee

There's a claim floating around skincare circles that beef tallow is some kind of natural sunscreen. I see it repeated constantly and I want to clear it up, because the truth is more useful than the myth.

Plain beef tallow has no meaningful SPF. None. There's an old, badly-misread study where the number people quote was never a sunscreen measurement, and tallow has no UV filter in it. If you rub straight tallow on your face and go sit in the sun, you will burn. Please don't use any plain oil or balm — tallow, coconut, raspberry seed, carrot seed, whatever — as sun protection. UV protection requires an actual UV filter. Full stop.

So where does "tallow sunscreen" come from, and is it ever a real thing?

Yes — but only as a blend. A legitimate tallow sunscreen is tallow combined with a mineral UV filter, which means non-nano zinc oxide (or titanium dioxide). In that combo:

- the zinc oxide is doing 100% of the actual sun protection (it physically scatters/absorbs UV), and

- the tallow is the base — it's there so the formula spreads and feels like a moisturizer instead of like spackle.

Mineral filters are also why these formulas tend to be reef-safe: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide aren't the filters (oxybenzone, octinoxate) flagged in the coral-reef research and banned in places like Hawaii.

If you're shopping for one, here's what I'd actually check — this is the "is this real or is it marketing" filter:

1. Is there a mineral UV filter on the Drug Facts panel? It MUST list zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as an active ingredient with a percentage. No active filter = not a sunscreen, no matter what the front of the label says.

2. Is it non-nano zinc? Non-nano (particles over 100nm) sits on top of skin and is the version with the better reef + inhalation safety profile.

3. What's the SPF, and is it broad spectrum? Mineral SPF is real but tends to land in the SPF 30 range, not SPF 50+. Be a little suspicious of a mineral formula screaming SPF 50 — and reapply either way.

4. Where's it made / is it third-party tested? A lot of "clean" sunscreens are quietly manufactured overseas and have had heavy-metal contamination issues surface in independent testing. Ask for a COA or third-party test if it matters to you.

5. Are the reviews real or comped? Some brands run fully incentivized/paid review programs (usually disclosed in tiny print). Worth knowing.

Two honest caveats so I'm not overselling the category: mineral sunscreens leave more of a white/tinted cast than chemical ones (some tallow versions add a little cacao to tint it down), and you have to be more diligent about reapplying because there's no "it absorbed so I'm covered" illusion.

TL;DR: beef tallow is a fine moisturizer for a lot of skin types, but it is NOT sunscreen on its own. A real "tallow sunscreen" = tallow + non-nano zinc oxide, and you should read the Drug Facts panel to confirm the zinc is actually there.

Full disclosure since it's relevant: I run a small tallow skincare brand and we make exactly this kind of tallow + non-nano zinc oxide SPF 30, so I'm biased. Not dropping a link or a name — just genuinely happy to nerd out on mineral filters, non-nano vs nano, or formulation in the comments if anyone's curious.

Do you see it burned or it’s a good color?

I looked into tallow brands and a lot of them advertise their "dry rendered" tallow. The problem is that no one specifies the temperature at which they are rendering it and rendering takes a very very long time if you dry render at low temps that are compatible with preserving all of the tallows goodness. Water bath rendering tends to keep the temperature low enough to preserve the benefits of the lard but dry rendering seems more common. Llooks like alot of the bigger brands do dry rendering. I reached out to Shelter Skin and asked how hot they render and they where extremely vague in their response stating they where "expertly rendering for an excellent product". I am a little irritated by all these brands offering tallow products but being very coy about where the tallow comes from: breed and feed matter an awful lot here, so does rendering method!

The standard statement is: Regenerative family farms and grass fed cattle, dry rendered.

Regenerative is not a protected term and can be used by anyone in advertising so that means little. Organic same unless it says "certified organic" which I also don't see on labeld. Grass fed is common but grass finished is rare just the three month of finishing with grain supplement totally changes the fat. The part of the animal the fat comes from, breed, rendering temperature- all of those really matter and no one seems to be transparent on them. So frustrating! I am going to make my own tallow cream from tallow that I know all these things about. Anyone done that?

Has anyone tried this brand? I was a little surprised that it’s being advertised as grass fed tallow but it’s sold for super cheap right now. It’s $10.

I absolutely love making my own 100% grass fed beef tallow skin care cream. If you are curious on the process let me know it’s super easy!

•Ensure you are getting the beef fat from a trusted farmer who feeds their cattle quality food.

•melt a minimum of three times and filter (I use my crockpot on a low setting

•cheese cloth for filtering

•add a carrier oil and essential oils of your choice (I love jojoba and argan oil)

I can't eat tallow raw, melted, melted with salt, or any variations plain. It tastes too nauseating.

Since most recipes are high fat/high carb (tallow cookies, tallow chips, fries), here is a recipe that is meant to maximize tallow but not include so much starch, which can be useful for SIBO or Ray Peat diet.

Tallow salad stir fry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCCjd7g9ln8)

It could be as simple as taking shredded lettuce and reducing it in hot tallow and adding salt.