Making Suet -- It's For The Birds!

[7pcSuit]

Does anyone else make their own suet? I've been making suet for years. It's fun, easy, and much cheaper to make it than buying those little hard, waxy cakes of suet sold in stores. Most of all, birds love homemade suet much better than commercial suet.

Here's a great site for suet recipes:

http://birding.about.com/library/weekly/aa101800a.htm

If you click on "feeder stick recipe" it gives you pretty close to the recipe I use.

Feeder Stick Recipe:

http://birding.about.com/library/blrecipe17.htm

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup lard - any animal fat will do
1 cup flour
*3 cups cornmeal

Mix well. You can add seeds, crushed eggshells, raisins, etc. to the mixure. Store unused mixture in a cool place.

The important thing to remember about making suet is birds will eat it no matter if you make it right or not.

*Mixing in just the right amount of cornmeal is important. Mix it in slowly. "Too little" is better than "too much." You can always add more. Too much cornmeal makes it set up too hard, and it's difficult to work with.

I suggest making suet logs for feeding suet to birds. I made my suet logs years ago. Here's a site that explains how to make suet logs:

http://www.birdnature.com/log.html

If you aren't inclined to make suet logs, you can rub suet into the bark of a tree, or you can reuse a commercial suet basket. You can also crumble suet in bird feeders.

Once you make your own suet and see how fast it attracts birds, it's hard to stop making it! Hey, it's for the birds, right?

[Roamer]

That's very interesting. I've never tried making it before, but I might now.

[7pcSuit]

That's very interesting. I've never tried making it before, but I might now.Oh, I'm so glad to hear it!

Also, a little tip is that you only need to heat the lard just until it melts, not bubbly or boiling. Just melt the lard until it's a clear liquid. Then if you add the peanut butter to the warm melted lard, the peanut butter will melt and mix into it. At that point, I mix in the flour, then I slowly mix in the cornmeal.

The consistency should be like, say, mashed potatoes, or slightly thinner. I refrigerate mine, or sit it on the porch in the winter, to let it "set up." That's why I mentioned not adding too much cornmeal. The suet mixture sets up "firm" when it's chilled. You don't want it brick hard. I have a special "suet pan" that I chill my suet in, and I have an ice cream scoop for dipping out the suet.

If you make some suet, you will be astonished at the birds you will attract!!

And they will love you for it!!! :zm10:

[Roamer]

Do all the birds like it? We have flocks of cardinals in the winter time.

[Noahs ARK]

I've been making suet for years. My recipe varies, depending on what I have in my kitchen. I save stale nuts, oatmeal, crackers, dried fruit/trail mix - then I throw it into the suet.

I make huge amounts at the same time, then keep it in the freezer. When I see the suet needs to be replaced, I just take one out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for a few hours.

[Noahs ARK]

Do all the birds like it? We have flocks of cardinals in the winter time.


I have cardinals eating some of mine right now. I haven't seen too many cardinals here lately, but yesterday and today I've seen 3.

I always wonder where they go when they disappear.

[7pcSuit]

I've been making suet for years. My recipe varies, depending on what I have in my kitchen. I save stale nuts, oatmeal, crackers, dried fruit/trail mix - then I throw it into the suet.

I make huge amounts at the same time, then keep it in the freezer. When I see the suet needs to be replaced, I just take one out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter for a few hours.I do the same thing... oats, shredded cocoanut, nuts, raisin bran etc., etc.

I save all my eggshells, and crunch them up to add to suet, too.

I make a huge amount, too.

Also, I keep a container of frozen bacon grease in the freezer, and add to it every time I fry bacon. I add the bacon grease to the melted lard whenever I make suet. I learned this from the head of our local audubon society.

Oh yeah, cardinals LOVE my suet! They attack my suet logs! My cardinals also LOVE black oil sunflower seeds, so I always add those to my suet.

:howdy:

[Topaz]

I just buy beef suet at the grocery...and put it out as is. I freeze it first.

But this season we can't find any! It has been getting harder and harder, during the previous years. One butcher looked at my husband and said sternly~~~ "what are YOU using this for?" And my husband who is rather introverted was stunned... he said we feed the woodpeckers etc each winter. So at that time
the guy gave him the suet, but if he had said, to make pies, etc, the answer would be NO. He came home and said ~~ there were Suet Police there.:francis:
So now he won't ask for it!

So when I did some shopping at our Meijer's (one of those big super store type grocery stores) I found on sale natural suet blocks in the pet department.
They were .50 each! So I bought six of them. We have two feeders for suet
the coated wire ones. And the birds like this just as well. I am hoping after the holidays, I will find some regular suet. Sometimes it is in the frozen meat
section where the turkeys are kept. With the holidays that area was full of holiday food, and no room for things like suet.

[Roamer]

I have cardinals eating some of mine right now. I haven't seen too many cardinals here lately, but yesterday and today I've seen 3.

I always wonder where they go when they disappear.


They come to my house. :67302: One day one tree was so full of them my grandaughter said it looked like a Christmas tree.

[Noahs ARK]

They come to my house. :67302: One day one tree was so full of them my grandaughter said it looked like a Christmas tree.

Huh - that could be true. I'm not far from Alabama! :basic45:

[Noahs ARK]

*snip*

I save all my eggshells, and crunch them up to add to suet, too.


I never even thought about saving eggshells for suet! What a good idea - thanks for the tip! :francis: