From 1955 to 1990, the most famous french fry on earth was cooked in beef tallow. Then a marketing campaign convinced America its oldest cooking fat was the enemy, the fryers went over to seed oils, and the country got fatter every year since.

Bring Back the Tallow is the American companion to Bring Back the Dripping: 97 pages and thirty-three recipes for the food that built the country. The diner griddle. The cast-iron skillet. The Texas pit, translated faithfully for a home oven. The chuckwagon pot. And one closing argument: the 1990 fry, restored.

Render your own tallow and lard for a couple of dollars. Smash burgers the way the first stands did. Chicken fried steak with cream gravy. Brisket, burnt ends, and plate ribs without a smoker. Texas red with no beans, as the trail drives made it. Liver done so it converts the doubters, jerky without the candy coating, and eggs fried the way your grandmother actually fried them.

What arrives with it: the 97-page recipe book as an instant PDF download, written in American measurements first (pounds, ounces, Fahrenheit) with metric alongside. Every recipe tested in a domestic kitchen, every historical claim checked against the record.

The old fats were never the problem. Cook like the country used to.