One Texas city is becoming a Petri dish for a beloved fast-food chain’s foray into the glossy and slippery world of beef tallow. Wienerschnitzel, the California-based hot dog and burger restaurant with a distinctive A-frame that’s not at all like another distinctive A-frame, has reportedly been using beef tallow instead of vegetable oil in six Corpus Christi stores.
This is all an experiment, according to Patricia Cobe at the food-and-beverage industry news website Restaurant Business. Wienerschnitzel CEO JR Gallardi told the outlet Feb. 26 that the Texas locations are cooking french fries and other fried foods in beef tallow as a three-month test, mostly because it’s what America used to do, and the store is wondering whether folks will dig the old-school taste.
Fast-food restaurants cooked foods in tallow before the 1990s, but guidance about its health risks pushed businesses to switch to vegetable oil. McDonald’s famously started that shift in 1990. That turned back around in January, when the federal government unveiled completely new dietary guidelines. Those guidelines prop up beef tallow, along with whole milk, butter and, according to the Food Yield Sign, that can of green beans that’s been in your pantry for the past 13 years and a single over-easy egg.
In the last year, several restaurants have been switching to all or partial beef tallow, including Houston-based breakfast chain The Toasted Yolk Cafe and the Galleria’s King Steak. That latter restaurant also has a “Texas strip,” aka a New York strip renamed because Texas…