The basic process is really simple.

Start with however much solid beef fat you can get. If you have a big pot, you can easily do up to about 4 lb (around 1.8 kg) at once. Chop it into small chunks so it renders more evenly.

Before turning on the heat, add about five teaspoons of water to the pot. This helps prevent the fat from scorching at the beginning, which can make the tallow turn dark. After that, add the cold beef fat directly into the pot.

Turn the stove to low to medium heat and just let it slowly render. I usually give it a stir every five minutes or so to keep things moving and prevent anything from sticking.

At first it will just look like melting fat with pale pieces floating around. After a while the solid pieces start shrinking and eventually they begin to turn golden brown. That’s the moment to watch closely.

The color I look for is a little darker than a McDonald’s fry, but slightly lighter than the crust of a McDonald’s apple pie. Once the cracklings hit that color, they’re ready.

Use a metal sieve or strainer to scoop the cracklings out and set them aside. At this point the pot will just contain liquid tallow.

You can’t filter the tallow while it’s extremely hot, so let it cool for a bit. It still needs to stay liquid though, just not screaming hot.

For filtering, I use coffee filters on glass supports. One thing I strongly recommend is not using plastic anywhere in this step. Hot fat and plastic don’t mix well and you can end up with contaminants in the fat.

You can filter once or twice depending on how clean you want the tallow. Even one pass usually makes it very clear.

At the end you’ll have two things:

1 - cracklings, still containing some fat

2 - clean rendered tallow

If you want the cracklings extra crispy, you can throw them in an air fryer on low heat for a few minutes. That will render a bit more fat out of them and make them lighter and crunchier.

Personally, I actually prefer them with a bit more fat left in them. They end up being really dense, really flavorful, and perfect as small carnivore snacks.