Tallow

Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides.

In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain technical criteria, including its melting point. Commercial tallow commonly contains fat derived from other animals, such as lard from pigs, or even from plant sources.
The adjacent diagram shows the chemical structure of a typical triglyceride molecule.

The solid material remaining after rendering is called cracklings, greaves, or graves. It has been used mostly for animal food, such as dog food.Nicolas Jean Baptiste Boyard,'' Manuel du bouvier et zoophile: ou l'art d'élever de soigner les animaux'' 1844, 327
/ref>

In the soap industry and among soap-making hobbyists, the name tallowate is used informally to refer to soaps made from tallow. Sodium tallowate, for example, is obtained by reacting tallow with sodium hydroxide (lye, caustic soda) or sodium carbonate (washing soda). It consists chiefly of a variable mixture of sodium salts of fatty acids, such as oleic and palmitic.Ruth Winter (2007): ''A Consumerýs Dictionary of Household, Yard and Office Chemicals: Complete Information About Harmful and Desirable Chemicals Found in Everyday Home Products, Yard Poisons, and Office Polluters''. 364 pages.

Composition

The composition of the fatty acids is typically as follows:
*Saturated fatty acids:
** Palmitic acid (C16:0): 26%
** Stearic acid (C18:0): 14%
**Myristic acid (C14:0): 3%
*Monounsaturated fatty acids:
** Oleic acid (C18-1, ω-9): 47%
** Palmitoleic acid (C16:1): 3%
*Polyunsaturated fatty acids:
**Linoleic acid: 3%
** Linolenic acid: 1%

Uses

Tallow is used mainly in producing soap and animal feed.

Food

A significant use of tallow is for the production of shortening. It is also one of the main ingredients of the Native American food pemmican. With a smoke point of , tallow is traditionally used in deep frying and was preferred for this use until the rise in popularity of plant oils for frying. Before switching to pure vegetable oil in 1990, McDonald's cooked its French fries in a mixture of 93% beef tallow and 7% cottonseed oil. According to a 1985 article in ''The New York Times'', tallow was also used for frying at Burger King, Wendy's, Hardee's, Arby's, Dairy Queen, Popeyes, and Bob's Big Boy. Tallow is however making a comeback in certain nutrition circles. See also roux.

Greaves

Greaves (also graves) or cracklings is the fibrous matter remaining from rendering, typically pressed into cakes and used for animal feed, especially for dogs and hogs, or as fish bait. In the past, it has been both favored and shunned in dog food.

Fuel

Biodiesel

Tallow can be used for the production of biodiesel in much the same way as oils from plants are currently used.

Aviation fuel

The United States Air Force has experimented successfully with the use of beef tallow in aviation biofuels. During five days of flight testing from August 23 to 27, 2010, at Edwards Air Force Base, California, a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III flew using JP-8 conventional jet fuel in three of its engines and a 50/50 blend of JP-8 and HRJ biofuel made from beef tallow in one engine on August 23, followed by a flight with the same 50/50 blend in all four engines on August 24. On August 27, it flew using a blend of 50% JP-8, 25% HRJ, and 25% coal-based fuel made through the Fischer–Tropsch process, becoming the first United States Department of Defense aircraft to fly on such a blend and the first aircraft to operate from Edwards using a fuel derived from beef tallow.

Printing

Tallow also has a use in printmaking, where it is combined with bitumen and applied to metal print plates to provide a resistance to acid etching.

The use of trace amounts of tallow as an additive to the substrate used in polymer banknotes came to light in November 2016. Notes issued in 24 countries including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom were found to be affected, leading to objections from vegans and members of some religious communities.

Candles

Tallow once was widely used to make molded candles before more convenient wax varieties bec