Homemade Suet

It's all about feeding the birds today, y'all! During these cold winter months, suet is where its at for several kinds of birds. Suet is basically a mixture of animal fat, cornmeal, flour and seeds/peanuts that many birds love. Because it is made of fat, it should only be fed during the cold winter months, as the fat can melt and get on the birds feathers causing some issues. Plus, the heat could made it go rancid very quickly.

My birds (and squirrels) were going gangbusters on my suet feeder, so I decided than rather buying the premade suet cakes, I could make my own. Thanks to my friend Google, I came across several recipes for homemade suet. It's also a great way to use up any ingredients that you need to purge from your pantry. Here's what I ended up with:

Homemade Suet:

• 2 cups tallow (I couldn't find any tallow, which is beef fat, so I ended up using lard, which is pork fat)
• 2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 6 cups cornmeal (I ended up using cornmeal mix because that's what I had. It is a mixture of cornmeal and flour. Next time I will probably go with actual cornmeal to help the consistency)
• 1 cup flour
• 8 cups birdseed
• Dried Fruit (optional)

First, melt the lard and peanut butter in a double boiler or the microwave.

Gag....

After everything is nice and smooth, start mixing up the rest of the ingredients.

It was really funny mixing this suet up. It's not every day I cook with lard and/or birdseed! Ok, I've never cooked with birdseed.

Once everything is mixed, put it onto a pan and throw in the fridge to harden up.

I was going to be all fancy for the suet that I was taking to my office and cut out little Valentine Day suet cakes.

I even had red/pink/white string and everything to hang it with but that got nixed because my suet was a little too soft. Hence why all cornmeal would probably work better than the cornmeal mix.

Anyways, after your suet has hardened up just cut it up into rectangles and put in zip-lock bags. Store your suet in the freezer until ready to use. Below is a typical suet feeder.

Yellow-rumped Warbler enjoying some suet

The guys at Birdsong Nature Center have their suet in a cypress stump, which makes me want one really bad now.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-winged blackbird

So go ahead and make some homemade suet - your bird friends will thank you!

{ps -Stacey I can feel you rolling your eyes at the post while I am writing it. Enjoy!}