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What to Do with Brisket Fat Trimmings (Food and Non-Food Ideas)

What to Do with Brisket Fat Trimmings (Food and Non-Food Ideas)

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It can generally go without saying that grilling some brisket is a timeless tradition, and it can leave you and your family with a hefty meal that will last you a while. However you may choose to cook your brisket, there are many reasons why you might decide to trim the fat down.

Some people do it so that there isn’t so much fat to go through when serving the brisket, whereas others do it so that the smoke can penetrate the meat better. No matter what you do with your brisket, you might find yourself wondering what you should do with your fat trimmings.

There are a fair few things you can do with the trimmings from brisket. Some people like to keep things food-oriented, utilizing the fat for other dishes. Other people prefer to turn the fat into something completely different.

Food-Related Uses for Brisket Fat Trimmings

Brisket

If you want to keep the brisket fat trimmings with the food you are making, there are plenty of ways to do this. For instance, if you cook burgers regularly, you can grind the brisket fat into (leaner) hamburger meat.

This will give it a distinct flavor that just about anyone can appreciate. Likewise, brisket fat trimmings can replace butter in the recipe for burger meat as well.

If you want to make a side dish to whatever you are grilling up, you might want to consider using the brisket fat for frying some classic French fries. The fat will add some extra flavoring to the grease of the fries, giving it a kick that will make a solid addition to any grilled meal.

Other people might make the fat into a gravy, whereas some people might render the fat to turn it into Yorkshire Pudding: a versatile dish for just about any meal. There are many different directions you can take brisket fat trimmings when it comes to food, but there are many more if you are willing to make something inedible.

Alternative Uses for Fat Trimmings

One of the most productive things that you can do with your brisket fat trimmings is to turn it into tallow. Simply put, tallow is a form of beef fat that can be used for a variety of different products ranging from soaps to body butters. 

You can make a variety of products from tallow. Many people use tallow for soaps, and most commercial soaps even have tallow in them. Because of tallow’s properties being able to harden and lather well, it can replace many different oils that would otherwise be used in a bar of soap.

For tallow soap, all you will need to collect is sodium hydroxide, tallow, water, and essential oils for the scent.

Burning Tallow Candles In A Temple

You can also use tallow to create candles as a replacement for beeswax. Making candles with tallow is just about the easiest thing you can do. All you need to do is melt the tallow, let it cool in a canning jar, and then simply place a wick in the middle along with any scents you want the candle to have.

Finally, you can make nutrient-rich body butters from tallow. Because tallow still holds a fair few nutrients from the brisket trimmings you took it from, it can make a wonderful moisturizer for your skin.

Do make sure that you add essential oils to change the smell of the tallow though, unless you want to smell like animal fats.

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Leila Smith

Sunday 13th of June 2021

Thanks for this great info. I wanted to start grinding meat for burgers and heard that mixing brisket with rib meat was a great option to typical chuck. I went to my local market and talked with the butcher and he told me that in Texas (where he is from) they use solely brisket for burgers, which he said makes great hamburgers. He also told me that the brisket that they sell here in the grocery, the majority of fat is removed, which is probably why people add the fatty short rib meat. I decided to purchase a brisket from a local farmer and it was loaded with a good layer of fat. Your article help me decide to keep that fat in when I grind it.