GrillinFools
Rather than making French fries in vegetable oil, I decided to load up a cast iron pan with wagyu beef tallow and fry some fresh cut potatoes in that beef fat. These beef tallow French fries are so much better and tastier than typical fries. Spark up the grill, grab that cast iron pan and give them a shot.
If you dig the sweet potato fries, you can do those in beef tallow too. Check out Beef Tallow Sweet Potato French Fries. I have one more tallow fry recipe coming soon!
What are beef tallow French fries?
French fries fried in beef tallow rather than vegetable oil.
Is beef tallow good for fries?
Wait, what? Beef Tallow French Fries? Don’t go messing with the all American Icon (despite the fact that the adjective is, “French”). I’m not revamping the revered French fry. I’m just improving it. A tweak if you will. Rather than using vegetable oil for the golden brown and savory gloriousness, I’m going to drop these into some beef tallow. But, wait, just one more time, tallow? Isn’t that a candle? Ha, well, no and yes. Tallow is just fat and thus beef tallow is beef fat, in this case clarified wagyu beef fat. Yes, tallow can be a candle as fat will burn, but it is also a tool that every pitmaster should have in his/her arsenal. This is not a one use tool (something myself and Alton Brown can’t stand). It’s a vital ingredient in your brisket process (tap this link to see how and why it is vital). And in this post, I will use it three different times.
Beef Tallow French Fries Ingredients:
- 3 lbs of russet or yukon gold potatoes (we used russet taters)
- 24 oz of South Chicago Packing Wagyu Beef Tallow
- Coarse salt
Beef Tallow French Fries Instructions:
First, let’s slice those potatoes up into some pretty thin fries. I’m not talking Steak N Shake thin as I hate when those fries are cold in about 30 seconds, but I also want to have a higher surface area to inner potato ration than standard fries:
Next up, we need a can of this stuff:
Where to get Wagyu Beef Tallow
You are going to have to order a can of this online. I found it on Amazon here. One can of this stuff lasts seemingly forever and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. We used a little over half of this can for this recipe. But the 24 oz we used is not set in stone. That was about what we needed to fill the pan an inch or so. Add as much or as little as you need for whatever pan you are using.
A cast iron pan is also a good idea, for this cook. The more I cook (inside on the stove and outside on the grill) the more I like using cast iron. It takes a while to get hot, but once it does it stays that way for quite a while and thus creates a very even cooking environment.
Scroll down to the bottom and check out the video we made of this cook that I posted to our YouTube channel and please subscribe.
Let’s drop a dollop
Start off by dropping dollops of that icing like beef tallow in the pan:
When I say icing, I mean it reminds me of cake icing:
Tell me that doesn’t look like a dessert ingredient?
Set your grill to medium-medium high (depending on your grill) and place the cast iron pan and beef tallow over the direct heat (in this case, my gas grill which is perfect for a recipe like this as I can go medium-medium high on one side for the fries and high on the other for the burgers and easily adjust between the two):
Cast Iron Burgers to go along with the Beef Tallow Fries
While the tallow is melting and coming up to temp, let’s make a burger or two. I didn’t include the ingredients here for a cheeseburger. We all know how to make a burger and what goes into one. In this case, I also used a cast iron griddle to make my burgers. Instead of just dropping the burgers on a dry griddle, I greased up the cast iron griddle (which was sitting north of 500F) with a dollop of that glorious wagyu beef tallow:
Then I slapped some burgers down:
I got a BEAUTIFUL flavor crust on those burgers with the help of that fat which kept my cold ground beef from sticking to the cast iron:
While the burgers are frying on the cast iron griddle let’s make sure our beef tallow has melted and come up to temp. Target temp is between 350F-400F:
With my fat liquified and above the 350F mark, time to drop a batch of fries in:
Go for enough to fill the pan but not too much that a lot of fries stick out of the fat. We want complete submersion here:
Batches? We don’t need no stinkin’ batches!
Cook the fries in batches. Once each batch is removed for the salt, simply drop another load of thin sliced potatoes in.
While the fries are getting all kinds of happy in the beef tallow, let’s finish up that burger.
In years past, I’ve shown my love for toasted buns. Bread burns REAL fast on a grill, so we need to slow that process down. Some fat helps that. Normally, I bust out a can of that spray stuff and do something like this:
Don’t use the spray vegetable oil. Spread a little of the South Chicago Packing Wagyu Beef Tallow on your buns and place them on the griddle to toast along with a couple slices of cheese on the hamburger patties:
It still doesn’t take long for the buns to toast, even with the tallow. The cheese will take a lot longer to melt than the buns to toast. Once the buns have some char, remove them from the griddle and add whatever toppings or accoutrements. In this case purple onion and red tomato. Truth be told, I’m not a fan of the raw onion on a burger, but it’s always great to add some color to these recipes, so purple onion and red tomato it is. If someone hadn’t forgotten the lettuce we would have some of that too:
Now let’s make a double burg:
Aaaannnddd this is why I’m fat!
When our fries have browned and are floating on top of the melted beef tallow, we can remove them to a bowl lined with paper towels and salt these golden brown beauties:
***Pro Tip ~ Always season right after the fries come out of the oil as the seasoning will stick to the still slightly wet fries
Now time to grab some plated shots:
And now we GORGE!
Beef Tallow Fries Summary:
So let’s sum up, shall we. We fried our French fries in beef tallow. We greased our cast iron griddle in beef tallow. We buttered our buns with beef tallow. Oh, and this wagyu beef tallow is also key to our brisket recipe. Yeah, gonna go ahead and drop the link in here again.
These fries are definitely better than fries fried in vegetable oil. But how? This is hard to verbalize. It’s a series of “nots.” The beef tallow does not have that umami flavor that makes beef so delicious and satisfying. It’s got a lighter and cleaner essence to them both in terms of mouth feel and on the fingers. They almost do not need the paper towels in the bowl. The fries do not have the oiliness that comes from vegetable oil. That lighter, cleaner taste and feel take these to another level. So much so I really want to try them with some cheese shaved over the top like Asiago or Parmesan. I normally don’t dig that because regular/boring fries are so greasy that I don’t want to add more fat but these do not have that fatty/heavy taste or feel. If it were up to me, and I could make everyone fry French fries in beef tallow (and it didn’t cost anymore), I would gladly eat beef tallow French fries over regular fries for the rest of my life. I know, hyperbole much, but it’s not. I would have absolutely no problem switching over forever. Because it’s almost like the beef tallow amplified all the things that I love about French fries.
Thank you!
South Chicago Packing sponsored this post but I will tell you this, I just went on a family vacation to some cabins up north and I took a can of this beef tallow. I didn’t take it to shoot some content. I took it because it made the brisket we cooked up there better brisket. I didn’t take a single video or picture of the can or the contents, but I made sure to pack said can in the back of the car for the trip. That’s an honest testimonial right there.
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Scroll down just a little bit and check out the video we made of this cook that I posted to our YouTube channel and please subscribe
Beef Tallow French Fries
Ingredients
- 3 lbs russet potatoes
- 24 oz South Chicago Packing Wagyu Beef Tallow
- coarse salt
Instructions
- Slice the potatoes into think, long fries
- Add the beef tallow to an oven safe pan (we used cast iron)
- Set the grill to medium-medium high (depending on your grill) and set the pan with the tallow over the direct heat
- Allow the tallow to melt and come up to temp (between 350F-400F)
- Once the tallow is melted and above 350F drop the fries into the fat in batches
- Fill the pan but make sure no fries are sticking up out of the melted tallow
- Once the fries turn golden brown and begin to float, they are done
- Remove the French fries from the melted beef fat and place them in a paper towel lined bowl and sprinkle with desired amount of salt
- Serve
Video
Scott Thomas
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