Daniel Johnston’s unpolished cassette recordings—raw vocals and all—captivated indie music fans in the ’80s and caught the attention of Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, Beck and Wilco. Now, the late “outsider artist” is headed into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. On the next Us & Them, host Trey Kay explores Johnston’s life, art, and enduring legacy.
Tallow is rendered animal fat and has been used primarily in traditional food preparation — as an ingredient and as a cooking oil. In addition, tallow can be used in making soap, candles, healing salves, skin moisturizers and perfumes, as well as lubricants for wood, leather and metal working.
Tallow is produced by a stovetop technique known as rendering, which is the melting and clarifying of hard fat from around the kidneys and loins of mostly cattle and sheep. But tallow can be rendered from the fats of other ruminants, including both domestic and wild species such as deer and goats.
Rendering purifies the fat and rids it of “cracklings,” the bits of protein that can spoil the tallow if left unrefrigerated.
Chuck Kleine
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Beef fat being rendered in a double boiler.
Tallow, when rendered clean, can last up to a year at room temperature if stored in a dark place, and for many years when stored in the freezer.
The process begins by taking the hard fat and slowly cooking it in water until the fat chunks have turned cloudy and a yellow liquid, the tallow, rises to the top.
Next, it’s cooled in a refrigerator until a solid whitish substance forms at the top of the pot.
The solid is removed from the pot and any traces of protein bits still attached can be shaved off with a kitchen knife. Then, the entire process is repeated until the water is clear and the tallow is clean of any bits of protein.
The tallow is then strained into a jar and topped with a secure lid. When cooled, the tallow is ready for use.
Chuck kleine
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Cooled tallow.
There have always been several positive reasons to use tallow. Because of its high smoke point of 480 degrees, tallow was often used for deep frying, until the rise of vegetable oil.
While tallow contains saturated fat, it also contains monounsaturated fats, which are considered good for the heart. Beef tallow contains conjugated linoleic acid, which is a natural anti-inflammatory.
It’s also very good for the skin, either applied topically or consumed as an ingredient in any of a multitude of recipes. That’s because it’s high in omega 3’s and is packed with vitamins A, D, K, E and B12.
Daniel Johnston’s unpolished cassette recordings—raw vocals and all—captivated indie music fans in the ’80s and caught the attention of Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, Beck and Wilco. Now, the late “outsider artist” is headed into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. On the next Us & Them, host Trey Kay explores Johnston’s life, art, and enduring legacy.
The eye-popping cost of eggs has some people thinking about raising their own chickens. Zack Harold brings us the story of one woman who has spent the last decade trying to make that easier in West Virginia.
The last few years have seen a new wave of indie rock music emerging from the Mountain South. It’s distinguished by a Southern rock sound, and lyrics drawn from observations about living in the region. We’re talking about acts like Wednesday and MJ Lenderman — and Fust, a group that’s based in Durham, North Carolina with deep Appalachian roots. Fust has a new album. It’s called “Big Ugly.” Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams recently spoke with Fust singer and songwriter Aaron Dowdy.
This week on Inside Appalachia, Aaron Dowdy of alt country band Fust took an outside path to becoming a songwriter Also, egg prices are up. Some folks are talking about raising backyard chickens.
And, Helvetia, West Virginia’s old world Fasnacht festival continues to grow, in part because of an online video game. Organizers are OK with it.
