The butcher at the Meat Hook lit up a little when I asked if he had beef tallow. The Meat Hook is Brooklyn’s newest purveyor of farm-raised meat and center of carnivore culture. It’s a joint  venture between the Brooklyn Kitchen and the minds and cleavers behind Marlow and Daughters, and best of all, it’s only a few blocks from my apartment. Obviously, this was the place to look for a hunk of beef fat. I wanted it for making a pie crust, I explained to the butcher. “Rendered or unrendered?” he asked.

This wasn’t the first time I’d used animal fat in a pastry dough. A few years ago the New York Times ran an article by Melissa Clark that compared crusts made with various combinations of butter, beef fat, lard, duck fat, and shortening. It sang high praises for the beef fat version.  Inspired, I made an apple pie with a crust that was half butter and half beef suet, and I remember being happy with the results.

I thought of that crust again this past week while dreaming up a recipe for the pie contest at K&M bar here in Williamsburg, a benefit for BK Farmyards. I wanted to make a seasonal quiche — ‘seasonal’ at this time of year meaning, of course, root vegetables. I had on hand a big bag of potatoes and a bulb of celeriac (a.k.a celery root), and I wanted to add parsnips too, but not simply as roasted parsnip chunks mixed into the filling (though I’d this recently done with good results).  I thought instead of stirring parsnip puree directly into the eggs and cream that make up the quiche’s custard. This trick, I imagined, would make a heartier pie, and enhance the dusky flavors that I like in winter dishes.

And hence my idea for beef fat in the crust. The subtly darker flavor, described by Melissa Clark as “rich and slightly meaty, though not identifiably beefy” would boost those hearty winter flavors as well. I opted for the unrendered beef fat, which I supposed would taste richer.

Actually, what I got was probably suet, not tallow — tallow is the rendered stuff.  I was definitely working with an unrefined product – it had veiny red flakes and other odd bits in it that I did by best to cut out or cut around. If you’re squeamish about handling meat, particularly meat with suspiciously unidentifiable parts, this stuff isn’t for you.

This time around I didn’t bother using half butter – I simply substituted the beef fat, cut into small cubes, one-for-one in place of the butter in my favorite pastry recipe. It went into the food processor with flour and salt, and after a few spins of the blade it was cut into the familiar pea-sized pieces. The fat didn’t assimilate itself into the flour in quite the same way that butter does — even after moistening it with cold water and giving it a rest in the fridge the dough was still pretty crumbly and not terribly easy to work with. I had to muscle it a bit in order to hold it together and roll it out. I feared this would make the dough tough in the end but fortunately it didn’t. I might suggest using half butter though, if you don’t like fighting with powdery pie dough.

For my quiche filling I roasted two small parsnips with a clove of garlic until they were soft, then pureed them, garlic and all, with half-and-half until very smooth. To this I added enough additional half-and-half to bring the mixture to 2 cups, then whisked in 3 eggs. Meanwhile, I cut 3 medium potatoes and 1 medium celery root into thin slices and blanched them briefly in boiling salted water. I then transferred them to a skillet in which I’d sautéed  4 or 5 sliced shallots, cooked the mixture until the celery root began to brown slightly, and flavored it with chives, thyme, and lots of salt and pepper.

Into the pre-baked, beefy pie shell I spread a layer of shredded gruyere cheese and topped it with the potato mixture. I then carefully poured the parsnip custard over it and baked until firm. The finished quiche was rich and flavorful, slightly sweet from the parsnips and with a bit of brightness from the celery root.  A real winter pie.

And a prize-winning pie! The judges awarded it first prize in the savory pie division. One of them told me I’d scored a few extra creativity points for using beef fat in the crust. I’m glad he liked it, and I’m glad to have such a good source nearby for the stuff. And I’m glad to finally be living in an era when cooking with beef fat meets with such high approval.

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