Lamb Fat: What It Is, How to Render It and How to Cook With It

Ask a cook from Tashkent, Bukhara or Baghdad what makes rice, kebabs or roast potatoes taste like home, and the answer is often the same: lamb fat. In much of the Middle East and Central Asia it is the everyday cooking fat, prized for a rich, savory flavor that no oil can copy. In America it is mostly trimmed and thrown away.

Here in Rego Park, in the heart of New York's Bukharian Jewish community, lamb fat never went out of style. This guide explains what lamb fat is, what makes it kosher, how to render it into lamb tallow and the best ways to cook with it, including a pot of plov the way our neighbors make it.

In this guide: What lamb fat is · Is lamb fat kosher? · Lamb fat in Bukharian cooking · How to render it · How to cook with it · Plov recipe · FAQ

What Is Lamb Fat?

Lamb fat is the fat that surrounds and runs between the muscles of a lamb. Butchers trim it from chops, legs and shoulders, and it can be cooked raw, ground into meat or melted down. Melted and strained, it is called lamb tallow: it pours like golden oil when warm and sets into a firm, creamy white fat at room temperature.

Some sheep breeds of the Middle East and Central Asia carry a large store of fat in their tails. That fat tail, called alya in Hebrew and kurdyuk in Russian, is the most prized lamb fat in those cuisines.

Is Lamb Fat Kosher?

Yes, with an important rule. Sheep, cattle and goats are the animals whose chelev, certain forbidden fats, the Torah prohibits (Leviticus 7:23). These include the fats around the kidneys and the fat covering the stomach and intestines. Before lamb can be sold as kosher, a trained specialist called a menaker removes them in a process called nikkur. The fat that remains, the fat on and between the muscles, is permitted.

The fat tail is a famous special case: under rabbinic law it is permitted to eat, while the Karaite tradition forbids it.

That is a real difference from deer and other wild animals, whose fat is permitted, as we explain in our guide to kosher venison. Like all of our meat, our lamb fat is Glatt Kosher.

Lamb Fat in Bukharian and Middle Eastern Cooking

Bukharian Jews, from the Jewish communities of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, brought one of the world's great lamb-fat cuisines to Queens. An estimated 50,000 Bukharian Jews live in New York City, practically all of them in Queens, and Rego Park and Forest Hills are the heart of the community.

• Plov (osh palov): the national rice dish, traditionally cooked in rendered lamb fat with lamb, carrots, cumin and whole heads of garlic.
• Kebabs: neighborhood grills serve skewers of pure lamb fat, cooked until crisp outside and melting inside, alongside lamb and beef kebabs.
• Kofta and lyulya kebab: ground lamb or beef mixed with fat stays juicy over high heat.

Across the Middle East, the same fat enriches Turkish kebabs, rice dishes and slow-cooked stews. For the first-time cook, though, the easiest place to start is a tray of potatoes.

How to Render Lamb Fat Into Tallow

1. Chill and cut. Start with cold raw lamb fat. Cut it into small cubes, or grind it, which renders faster.
2. Start low. Put it in a heavy stainless steel pot with a few tablespoons of water and salt to keep it from scorching at the start.
3. Melt slowly. Cook over low heat, stirring now and then, for 1 to 2 hours, until the fat has melted out and the leftover bits are golden and crisp. Don't rush it: high heat browns the fat and makes it taste strong with gamy odor.
4. Strain. Pour it through a fine strainer lined with cheesecloth or clean cloth.cook on low heat for another half and hour with cloves, to remove the odor, strain with a double stainless fine strainer into a clean pot, then in to a boiled clean glass jars.
5. Cool and store. It sets white and firm. Keep it covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 months, or freeze it for a year or longer.

The crisp bits left in the strainer are a cook's treat: salt them and scatter them over rice or potatoes. Rather skip the rendering? Our Lamb Fat Tallow is ready to use.

How to Cook With Lamb Fat

• Roast potatoes: toss halved potatoes in melted lamb tallow with salt and rosemary and roast at 425°F until deeply crisp, about 40 to 45 minutes.
• Juicier kebabs and kofta: grind raw lamb fat into lean lamb or beef, roughly 1 part fat to 4 parts meat. Or start with our ready Beef and Lamb Kufta Mix.
• Searing: a spoonful of lamb tallow in a hot pan gives lamb chops a deep crust.
• Rice: start any pilaf by toasting the rice in lamb fat.
• Vegetables: roast carrots, onions or eggplant in it for a savory, almost meaty flavor.

Lamb fat has a distinct flavor, which is the point. If you're new to it, start by replacing half the oil in a recipe.

Recipe: Plov With Lamb Fat

A home-kitchen version of the rice dish served across Central Asia and on Bukharian tables in Queens. Traditionally it is made in a heavy cast-iron pot called a kazan; a wide Dutch oven works well.

Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time: about 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ pound raw lamb fat, cut in small cubes, or ⅓ cup lamb tallow
• 2 pounds boneless lamb stew meat, in 1½-inch pieces
• 2 large onions, sliced into half-moons
• 2 pounds carrots, cut into thick matchsticks
• 2 teaspoons whole cumin seed
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, divided
• 2½ cups long-grain rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
• 2 whole heads of garlic, loose outer skin removed
• Optional: a handful of barberries or raisins, and 1 cup cooked chickpeas

Instructions

Step 1: Render. Cook the lamb fat cubes in the pot over medium-low heat until they release their fat and turn crisp, about 20 minutes. Lift out the cracklings and save them. (With tallow, simply heat it.)

Step 2: Brown. Raise the heat, add the onions and cook until golden. Add the lamb and brown it well on all sides.

Step 3: Build the base. Spread the carrots on top, sprinkle with the cumin and 2 teaspoons of salt, and cook without stirring for 5 minutes, then stir. Add hot water just to cover, lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 30 minutes.

Step 4: Add the rice. Spread the rinsed rice in an even layer over the meat; don't stir. Add the remaining salt, the barberries and chickpeas if using, and pour in hot water to cover the rice by about ½ inch. Press the garlic heads into the center.

Step 5: Steam. Cook uncovered over medium heat until the water is absorbed into the rice, then poke a few holes in the rice with a spoon handle, cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the rice is tender.

Step 6: Serve. Gently mix, pile onto a platter with the meat and carrots on top, and crown it with the garlic heads and cracklings. Serve with a tomato and cucumber salad.

Lamb Fat Questions

Is lamb fat kosher?

Yes, when it comes from a kosher-slaughtered lamb and the forbidden fats (chelev) around the kidneys and digestive organs have been removed by a trained specialist. The fat on and between the muscles is permitted. Our lamb fat is Glatt Kosher.

What is lamb tallow?

Lamb tallow is lamb fat that has been slowly melted, strained and cooled. It is liquid and golden when warm and firm and white at room temperature, and it keeps for months in the refrigerator.

What can I do with raw lamb fat?

Render it into tallow for roasting and frying, grind it into lean meat for juicier kebabs and burgers, or cook it into plov and other rice dishes.

Does lamb fat taste gamey?

It tastes distinctly of lamb, rich and savory, which is why it is so loved in Middle Eastern and Central Asian cooking. Rendering it slowly over low heat keeps the flavor clean.

Lamb fat or beef tallow: which should I use?

Beef tallow is milder and works almost anywhere. Lamb fat has more personality and shines with lamb, rice, cumin, garlic and roasted vegetables.

Where can I buy kosher lamb fat?

Aaron's Gourmet sells Glatt Kosher Lamb Fat Raw and Lamb Fat Tallow, with nationwide shipping and local pickup in Rego Park, Queens.

Keep Reading

• A Kosher Hanukkah Menu: Brisket, Latkes and the Best Fats for Frying
• Is Venison Kosher? A Guide to One of the Rarest Kosher Meats
• What Is Beef Tripe? The Humble Cut Behind the World's Great Soups

Sources

• Leviticus 7:23 on Sefaria; Wikipedia, "Chelev" (forbidden fats, nikkur and the fat tail).
• Brick Underground on the Bukharian Jewish community in Queens.
• Taste of Jew, "What is Bukharian food?" and Wikipedia, "Bukharan Jewish cuisine".

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Aaron's Gourmet is a chef-owned butcher and kitchen based in Rego Park, New York, delivering premium organic and specialty kosher meats nationwide since 1995. Learn more about our story.