Tallow, Lard, Suet, Dripping: What the Words on the Tub Actually Mean

Animal fats are back in the shop, and they come with a vocabulary that nobody explains. Tallow, lard, leaf lard, suet, dripping, beef lard. Some of those are the same thing under two names. One of them should not exist at all.

This is the short decoder. If you want the full comparison of tallow and lard in the pan, that is in tallow vs lard.

The animal comes first

The quickest way to sort these words is by animal.

• From cattle (or sheep): suet, tallow, beef dripping
• From pigs: lard, leaf lard
• From poultry: schmaltz (chicken fat), duck fat

Then ask whether the fat is raw or rendered. Rendering means melting fat slowly out of the tissue and straining it. Raw fat is solid and fibrous. Rendered fat is what ends up in a jar.

The words, one by one

Suet. The hard, raw fat from around the kidneys and loins of cattle or sheep. The dictionary definition ends with the useful part: suet is the fat “that yields tallow”.¹ Butchers sell it raw for rendering, for British puddings and for bird feeders.

Tallow. Rendered beef fat, sometimes mutton. There is no federal standard that defines edible tallow, so the word on a jar describes the product without certifying it.

Beef dripping. Mostly a British term. Strictly, dripping is the fat and juices that run out of meat while it cooks.² In British shops “beef dripping” usually means rendered beef fat, which in America would be called tallow. Traditional dripping from a roast can carry some of the meat juices, which is why it tastes stronger.

Lard. Rendered pig fat, and the one term here with a legal definition in American meat rules: “the fat rendered from clean and sound edible tissues from swine.”³

Leaf lard. Lard made from the leaf fat, the soft fat inside the pig’s abdomen that cooks usually describe as the fat around the kidneys.³ It is the mildest and most expensive lard, and it is the one for pastry.

Beef lard. By the federal definition above, lard only comes from pigs, so “beef lard” does not make sense. Rendered beef fat is tallow. That is my reading of the rule, not a ruling from the USDA, but if you see “beef lard” on a label, you are almost certainly looking at tallow with a confused name.

Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat, and ghee is butter with the water and milk solids cooked off. Neither is tallow or lard, but they sit on the same shelf.

How different are suet and tallow really?

Suet is mostly fat already. Rendering takes out the water and the tissue, and what is left is tallow. The USDA figures for the two are close, though not identical, and lard sits apart from both. These are grams per 100 grams.⁴

The row that matters for most readers is the last one. Lard has close to three times the polyunsaturated fat of either beef fat, most of it linoleic acid.

What else is on the label

The ingredient line. A jar of tallow or lard from a small producer usually has one ingredient. The big supermarket brands can be different. Armour’s lard, for example, lists “lard and fully hydrogenated lard, BHA, propyl gallate, and citric acid added to protect flavor.”⁵ BHA and propyl gallate are antioxidant preservatives that are allowed in food. Fully hydrogenated fat is not the same as the partially hydrogenated fat that used to be the main source of trans fat. None of that makes it unsafe, but it is not the single ingredient lard many people assume they are buying.

Grass fed, grass finished, pasture raised. These describe how the animal was raised. Grass finished means the animal ate grass to the end, not just for part of its life. None of these words comes with a test of the fat itself.

Rendered. Every tallow and lard is rendered. It is a description of the process, not a mark of quality.

Refined, deodorized, filtered. These words mean the flavor and smell have been reduced. Refined fats taste more neutral. Unrefined tallow will taste of beef, and some people buy it for exactly that reason.

Quick questions

What is another name for lard?
In Spanish, manteca. In Britain lard is still lard. Leaf lard is the premium version. “Shortening” is not lard: it usually means vegetable fat, although older recipes sometimes use the word loosely.

Is beef dripping the same as lard?
No. Dripping comes from beef and lard comes from pigs. Beef dripping is closer to tallow.

Is suet the same as tallow?
Suet is the raw fat. Tallow is what you get after rendering it.

Is beef lard a real thing?
Not under the federal definition of lard, which only covers pig fat. A tub labelled beef lard almost certainly contains tallow.

The bottom line

Sort by animal first. Suet, tallow and dripping are beef. Lard and leaf lard are pork. Beef lard is a mislabel. Then read the ingredient line, because a jar that says lard on the front can have more than lard inside.

References

1. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Suet. merriam-webster.com
2. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Dripping. merriam-webster.com
3. Code of Federal Regulations. 9 CFR 319.702: Lard, leaf lard. eCFR
4. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy: Beef, variety meats and by-products, suet, raw (FDC 170193), Fat, beef tallow (FDC 171400), Lard (FDC 171401). FoodData Central
5. Armour Lard. Products. Ingredient statement. armourlard.com