Harry Houdini

To cause the face to appear in a mass of flame make use of the following: mix together thoroughly petroleum, lard, mutton tallow and quick lime. Distill this over a charcoal fire, and the liquid which results can be burned on the face without harm.

Hungarian Entertainer

Tallow is often used for high-heat cooking like frying, due to its high smoke point.

Cooking Usage

Historically, tallow was commonly used to make candles before paraffin wax became popular.

Candle Material

Tallow specifically refers to fat from cattle or sheep, not pigs or plants.

Animal Origin

When making broth, tallow forms as a byproduct and can be used as a separate ingredient.

Cooking Byproduct

Tallow adds a unique flavor and is often used to enrich the taste of food.

Flavor Enhancer

Skimming tallow from broth can clarify it, making a clearer soup.

Broth Clarification

 our direct ancestors had already, and for 5,000 years, been crawling into the belly of the earth, where in the light of the flickers of tallow candles, they had brought into being the great art of the Upper Paleolithic. And I spent two months in the caves of southwest France