Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Here's the deal -- I had a bit of a miscommunication with the meat man about ordering a point-cut brisket and I got a whole brisket. Okay, so after my impromptu, self-taught, crash course in brisket butchering, I ended up with a couple of things that were pretty recognizable as flat-cut brisket, a few pieces of beautifully marbled stuff which I assume is my badly mauled point, and approximately 6 pounds of fat. I corned the flat pieces, froze the badly butchered stuff for barbecue at a later date, and I'm just sitting on the fat. I'd love to made some delicious tallow for frying stuff. Is brisket fat appropriate for this? I've found plenty of sources for rendering tallow on-line but they specify suet, which I gather is the bovine equivalent of leaf lard (i.e. kidney fat). On the other hand, whenever I find places selling lard, it's always the leaf lard, so I'm thinking that other cuts of fat will just taste more like the source animal. People have been trained to expect neutrally flavored fats, so I think that is why the emphasis is on these very mild-tasting fats. I don't think I'd mind a bit of beefy flavor, actually. However I'm not keen on stinking up my kitchen, especially since fatty odors are the hardest to get rid of. Anyone ever do this? TIA -- Kati

I would recommend rendering a small bit of the fat and seeing if you like the taste. Usually I cut chunks of fat into a coarse dice or chop then put them in small covered pot with a small amount of water, which helps keep it from burning before it melts. Keep the heat low to medium, if you push it and it scorches the house will smell for days.
I bet the JOC has instructions for this, at least in an older edition.
BeckyH

No, Pat! Don't sit on that!