How do we source and process our tallow?

Tallow is a wide term.

It's also called beef dripping in UK and Ireland.

It's a technical term for melted beef fat. But this fat can come from any part of the cow's body, from commercially raised, grain-fed cattle or from pasture-raised, grass-fed cows.

And based on where the fat comes from, and how it's processed there are different classes of tallow.

So let's discover them.

You see, most tallow brands use either cooking tallow from the store which smells like a rib eye steak or a commercially sourced, heavily refined tallow that's often bleached and deodorised with chemicals in the process.

Some try to melt their own at the beginning, but as they grow it becomes very hard to keep up. So they switch to commercial tallow.

This is where Ancestral Cosmetics stands as a market leader. We render all of our tallow in-house from day one - and will continue to do so.

We use traditional rendering process to melt our tallow. This means we:

1. Source fresh fat weekly from local Irish farms where cows are raised using traditional methods on open Irish pastures. Our tallow comes from grass fed & finished beef. 
2. We trim and remove impurities by hand before melting this fat into tallow. This is a tedious process that takes a very long time and is very manual. 
3. We then melt this clean fat into tallow in-house, using a traditional process and low heat only. No chemicals are added in the process.
4. Every single jar of our balms, creams and deodorants is made using our tallow.

Here's a sneak peak behind the curtain:

• Suet (kidney fat)
• Brisket fat
• Trimmings of fat
• Pieces of meat, bones, glands…

All of these can go into tallow. But what goes in comes out.

Suet is the hard fat found around the kidneys and loins of cattle. It’s the purest fat part on the cow. Brisket fat is a larger piece of fat surrounding the brisket. It’s usually more yellow than suet and can be harder.

Trimmings come from all parts of the cow. These can be leftover pieces from around the steaks or the outer body of the cow. They come in various harnesses and are mostly cut with a piece of meat or bone attached to it. 

When it comes to skincare you want to use suet - the cleanest part of the fat.

But there’s a problem: most butchers mix up the fat adding trimmings and leftovers that should go to trash. Especially at commercial scale the lines of fat types become very blurry.

These trimming and leftovers melted into tallow create the beefy smell we like on our burger, but not so much in our face cream. Or at larger scale companies use cheap chemicals to bleach and deodorise this tallow to remove the smell and ensure consistency between batches.

At Ancestral Cosmetics we use only fresh suet from Irish grass-fed, pasture-raised cows.

But that’s not all… 

We employ a team of full time staff of butchers and chefs to trim and cleans our suet to remove any leftover imperfections and impurities before we melt it into tallow.  

This is a long and tedious process that only a few skilled people can do properly. It takes both time & serious skill to do this consistently and at scale. That’s why most brands opt for an easy road: buying tallow in bulk from commercial suppliers.

Since tallow became popular many butchers, farms and meat processors found a new, unexpected source of income. Beef tallow, a thing they would usually throw out (or even pay disposal companies to take away). Now they can melt it & make some money.

There’s nothing wrong with this! But is this commercially melted tallow the same as crafted, hand-trimmed and melted tallow, specifically made for skincare?

Of course not. It can’t even compare.

Commercially melted tallow is a mix of any & all parts of the cow’s fat. No one knows what goes inside. Pieces of meat, glands, bones, expired and improperly stored meat and fat, rotten cuts of meat…

Because of this many high-scale processors also use a mix of chemicals to control the colour, smell and hardness of the final "tallow". They do this in two steps - bleaching and deodorising. 

1. Bleaching tallow removes the natural colour and can strip away some beneficial compounds from tallow, leaving it more uniform but less rich in its original nutrients. Often times this is done with chemical compounds that are added in.
2. Deodorizing uses high heat or steam to eliminate the natural scent of tallow, which can also alter its structure and reduce some of its bioactive components.

They do this to maintain the consistency of their batches and to produce a final product that is somewhat presentable.

But we don't do this.

There is so much that happens behind the scenes of tallow industry that brands don't disclose. At Ancestral Cosmetics we’re leading the industry of pure, grass-fed, pasture-raised tallow for skincare - and the transparency behind our process:

1. Premium sourcing from traditional Irish farms that raise cattle using traditional practices, on Irish green pastures and never feed them grains or hormones. Only grass, dried or fermented grass forms a cow's diet.
2. Skilled hand processing. From pure suet to the finest and cleanest tallow on the market, worthy of your face cream. No chemicals, no bleaching and no deodorizing.
3. Quality at every step. We employ a trained staff of butchers and chefs that trims our fat, melts our tallow and ensures only the finest cuts make it to our products.
4. Our final products are third party tested and meet strict EU cosmetic standard, ensuring you get both the benefit of completely natural skincare, but also a piece of mind that your face cream, body cream or deodorant is fully tested and safe to use.

And while we support all tallow industry (any tallow product is miles better than a commercial alternative) it’s becoming more and more important to think about sourcing and processing of tallow that goes on your face.

So before you buy a tallow product ask the company details about their process, how they source and process the tallow, do they make it in-house or outsource the production to third party. You'd be surprised how many companies do this.

If you want to support our work and try some of our world-class Irish beef tallow discover some of our best sellers below and experience the difference yourself.