I’m Not Putting Beef Tallow on My Face

For better or worse, the social media algorithms are showing me lots of meat, and people who eat lots of meat, some going as far as claiming they subsist only steaks, organs, eggs and butter. (Full disclosure: I think these people are lying, or have yet to feel the effects of their diet.)

Setting aside the politics of self-described carnivores (which Chris and Kim Severson discuss inthis episode of Milk Street Radio), I find the trend disturbing, mainly due to the complete lack of fiber. I have never been one to deprive myself of an entire category of foods, and I am not about to start with fruit, vegetables and whole grains.

But I do love eating meat.

I love steak (be it reserve-seared and served with a fiery-red chimichurri or steak au poivre). I love butter (especially browned butter). I love eggs. I love beef tallow. But I’m not putting beef tallow — the preferred moisturizer of this particular demographic — on my face. I need it for my potatoes.

McDonald’s made the switch from cooking their potatoes in beef tallow to using vegetable oil when I was four. I know I had eaten a Happy Meal by that point, but I can’t honestly claim to remember the flavor of the hallowed tallow fries. But I have made French fries, frying them in tallow (and duck fat), and they tasted really, really good. I also keep a can of sprayable, mist-able beef tallow spray from South Chicago Packing next to my air fryer, for roasted potatoes and carrots and such.

But I allow other fats in my kitchen, because sometimes a neutral oil is the best fat for the job. Sometimes you don’t want the fat to provide any flavor of its own, just carry the ones in the dish.

Beef tallow, or duck fat or schmaltz, would clash with the pure punch of acid in our Salt and Vinegar Smashed Potatoes, lessening their impact.

And while you probably could bake a cake with animal fat, I’d much prefer the peppery-fruity flavor of olive oil in my chocolate or lemon cakes. Plus, liquid oils are dead-easy to incorporate into batters, making most olive oil cakes one-bowl affairs.

But even if the carnivores are correct, and the key to perfect health lies in eating nothing but red meat, eggs, butter and kidneys (it doesn’t!), I would never be able to give up the simple pleasure of a juicy tangerine, in-season asparagus, or a really good grain bowl. I could never be the type of person who omits summer tomatoes from a salad, whether it’s the bread-based panzanella or straccetti di manzo (steak salad, Italian-style). I’ve already had to give up kiwis and mangoes—they make my lips very itchy—and I’m not about to sacrifice even more plant-based joy without a fight.

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.