When McDonald’s stopped frying with beef tallow in the 1990s, most people saw it as a win for America’s health. What changed?
Will Burgess thinks his French fries taste better now that he fries them in beef tallow. But he isn’t using the animal fat for its taste.
Mr. Burgess, 36, who owns a small restaurant that serves tacos and street food in Middletown, R.I., said he felt a “moral and ethical obligation” to change his menu earlier this year. He came to that conclusion after reading that seed oils, like the canola oil he used to cook his fries and tortilla chips, carried potential harms.
Tallow, he said, made for a healthier, more “natural” frying oil.
Beef tallow, a type of rendered fat, was a staple in America’s home and fast-food kitchens for much of the 20th century before falling out of favor because of its high levels of saturated fat. Now, it’s making a comeback.
In a Fox News segment on March 11, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., celebrated the Midwest-based food chain Steak ’n Shake for committing to frying its onion rings, chicken tenders and fries in 100 percent beef tallow. Upscale grocers stock products like tortilla chips and protein bars made with beef tallow. On social media, influencers render beef tallow in their kitchens, make tallow chocolates and even rub it on their faces.
But doctors and nutrition experts widely agree that using beef tallow in place of vegetable oil is misguided.
How we got here
Fats like beef tallow (and its pork-based equivalent, lard) were once America’s go-to cooking oils, said Kevin Klatt, a nutrition scientist and dietitian at the University of California, Berkeley.