Beef, variety meats and by-products, suet, raw

Raw beef suet is the firm, crumbly fat found around the kidneys, and it has a long history in British baking rather than in savory cooking on its own. Grated or shredded, it is the traditional fat in Christmas pudding, spotted dick, and mincemeat, giving these steamed puddings a light, moist crumb that butter cannot quite replicate. Rendered down over low heat, it turns into tallow, prized by some cooks for frying or roasting potatoes because of the very high, stable smoke point it holds up at, and it can also be worked into a traditional suet crust pastry for savory pies.

Buy it fresh from a butcher counter and keep it refrigerated for only a few days, or freeze it, since raw fat turns rancid faster than fat that has already been rendered into tallow. Nutritionally it is almost pure fat, 94 grams per 100 grams, which is why it delivers 854 calories per 100 grams against just 1.5 grams of protein and no carbohydrate, so it is used strictly as a cooking fat or pastry ingredient rather than a protein source. It does carry about 10% of the Daily Value for vitamin E per 100 grams, with sodium staying low at 7 milligrams.