Suet Recipes for Birds

Homemade Suet Recipes for Birds

Suet is one of the best foods you can use to attract insect-eating birds such as nuthatches, woodpeckers, wrens, titmice, creepers, kinglets, chickadees, thrashers, cardinals, and bluebirds.

If you want to discourage starlings, purchase a suet feeder cage that is covered on all sides but the bottom. Only those birds that can hang upside down will use this feeder. Starlings can't!

If the temperature outside is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and warmer, the fat can turn rancid and melt. It's best not to offer suet during the late spring, the entire summer and early autumn. Keep your suet hanging in the shade during warmer temperatures. During the winter, warm temperatures aren't so much an issue.


How to render fat into homemade suet:
1. Trim off excess fat from beef cuts and store in the freezer until enough fat is saved up. You can buy beef fat from the grocery store or your nearby butcher. You might even get it for free or a very small token price.
2. Grind the fat with a meat grinder or finely chop the fat. Your butcher might grind it for you.
3. Heat the fat gently on low or medium just until it's liquefied.
4. Strain by pouring melted fat through a fine cheesecloth.
5. Let cool in the refrigerator to harden.
6. Repeat above steps one more time. If the fat is not rendered twice, your suet will not cake properly.
7. Store in a covered container in the freezer until you are ready to make some suet cakes.

Recipes:

#1:
Ingredients - 1 lb. suet cut in small pieces,
1 cup yellow cornmeal,
1 cup oatmeal,
1 cup chunky peanut butter,
1 cup mixed wild bird seed,
1 cup hulled sunflower seeds or chopped pecans.
Preparation -
Slowly melt suet over low heat.
Stir in ingredients.
Pour or pack into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#2:
Ingredients - 1 cup Chunky Peanut Butter
2 Cups Cornmeal
2 Cups Instant Oatmeal
1 Cup Suet
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Flour
Preparation:
Melt suet and peanut butter together and stir.
Stir the remaining ingredients.
Pour the mixture into a square container about 1-1/2 inches thick.
Allow it to cool, then cut it into squares and store in the freezer.


#3
1/2 Pound Suet
1/3 Cup Sunflower Seeds
2/3 Cup Mixed Wild Bird Seed
1/8 Cup Chopped Peanuts or Chopped Pecans
1/4 Cup Raisins
Preparation:
Follow instructions for rendering suet.
While suet is cooling, stir ingredients together in a large bowl.
Place the suet into the mixture and mix thoroughly.
Put into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#4
1 Cup Fresh Suet
1 Cup chunky Peanut Butter
3 Cups Yellow Cornmeal
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
Preparation:
Follow instructions for rendering suet.
Over low heat, melt suet and add peanut butter. Stir until well blended.
Mix ingredients together in a large bowl.
Pour suet into the bowl mixture and mix thoroughly.
Pour into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#5
2 Pounds Fresh Ground Suet
1/2 Cup Chunky Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Shelled Sunflower Seeds or Chopped Pecans
Preparation:
Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended.
Stir in the sunflower seeds. Mix thoroughly.
Pour into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#6
3 Cups Rendered Suet
1 Cup dried, crumbled bread, no-salt crackers, or sugarless cereal
1/2 Cup Shelled Sunflower Seeds
1/4 Cup Millet
1/2 Cup Chopped Dried Apples
Preparation:
Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Allow the suet to cool until slightly thickened.
Stir suet into the bowl of mixture. Mix thoroughly.
Pour into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#7
1 Cup Suet
1 Cup chunky Peanut Butter
3 Cups Cornmeal
1/2 Cup Flour
Preparation:
Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
Add peanut butter, stirring until well blended.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Allow the suet to cool until slightly thickened.
Pour cooled suet into the dry mixture and mix thoroughly.
Pour into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#8
3 1/2 Cups Oatmeal
1 Quart Water
1 Pound Suet
1 1/2 oz chunky Peanut Butter
3 1/2 Cups Cornmeal
3 1/2 Cups Cream of Wheat
Preparation:
Melt suet in saucepan over low heat.
Cook oatmeal in water for 2 minutes and remove from heat.
Stir in suet and peanut butter and blend.
Add cornmeal and cream of wheat.
Pour into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.


#9
4 1/2 Cups Ground Beef Suet
3/4 Cup dry bread crumbs, no-salt crackers or sugarless cereal
1/4 Cup Millet
1/2 Cup Hulled Sunflower Seed
1/4 Cup Dried and Chopped Berries, Raisins or Currants
Preparation:
Melt suet over medium heat.
Mix together remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Allow suet to cool until lightly thickened.
Pour into bowl with other ingredients and mix well.
Pour into anything that can serve as a mold.
Refrigerate until hardened or freeze.