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Suet, to Clarify for Frying
Chop the suet roughly, free it from skin and fibre, and melt it in a Dutch oven before a clear fire. Pour the fat off frequently as it melts, for fear it should burn; or put the minced suet into a saucepan with plenty of boiling water, and keep it boiling until it is dissolved. Pour the liquor into a basin, and when it is cold take the cake of fat from the top. Melt it again, strain it through muslin, keep back the sediment, and the fat will be fit for use. Clarified suet is excellent for making plain pastry, and also for basting and frying purposes.
This is beef tallow rendered two ways: dry, in front of an open fire, or wet, boiled in water and lifted off as a cake. The wet method is the one to use on a modern hob, since it removes the meat juices that make untreated suet turn rancid quickly.
- What suet isSuet is the hard, crumbly fat from around beef kidneys, not general trim fat. Butchers still sell it fresh on request; the boxed shredded suet sold for puddings is coated in flour, which makes it a poor starting point here.
- "Dutch oven before a clear fire"In British books of this period a Dutch oven is usually a hooded metal reflector stood on the hearth, open at the back and facing the coals, which suits the instruction to work "before a clear fire". On a stove, use a heavy saucepan over the lowest possible heat, or a low oven around 250-275F, which is far easier to control.
- The hinge: keep it below browningRendered fat scorches long before it looks scorched, and burnt tallow tastes of it permanently. That is why the original says to pour the fat off frequently as it melts. Hold the pan below about 250F and stop while the cracklings are pale gold, not brown.
- The water methodCover the minced suet generously with water and simmer until the solids have shrunk and gone translucent; reckon on an hour or more for two pounds. The water caps the temperature at 212F so nothing can burn, and the meat juices and salts dissolve into it rather than staying in the fat.
- Chilling and lifting the cakeCool overnight in the refrigerator rather than a cold larder. The cake lifts off clean; scrape the cloudy jelly and sediment from its underside before the second melting, as that residue is what shortens keeping life.
- StrainingMuslin is right, but use two or three layers, or a coffee filter, over a fine sieve. Strain while the fat is fluid and hot enough to pass easily but not smoking.
- Yield and keepingA pound of raw suet gives roughly 12-14 oz of clean tallow. Refrigerated in a covered jar it keeps several months; frozen, longer. A sour or stale smell means it has gone rancid and should not be used.
- Use in pastry and fryingTallow is harder than lard at room temperature, so for pastry work it cold and grated, and expect a firmer, flakier short crust. Its smoke point is around 400F, which suits shallow frying and roast potatoes well.
History: Before commercial shortenings, suet was among the cheapest solid cooking fats in a British kitchen, and clarifying it was a routine of thrift rather than a recipe in any modern sense: the fat came with the joint, and rendering turned an offcut into pastry fat, frying medium and candle stock. The two methods given suit two different kitchens, one still cooking at an open hearth with a reflector oven, one working at a closed range with a saucepan of water. Tallow fell out of domestic use through the twentieth century as vegetable shortenings and later seed oils became cheap, and has come back mainly through butchers, restaurant fry cooks and home cooks after a firmer pastry fat.