The thing I love most about birders is that they’re always willing to help and share their knowledge. So, when I asked what the best suet recipes were on our Facebook page, you responded with a host of great ideas.
For those who don’t know what it is, suet is a cake of fat and other ingredients (like seeds and fruits) that is fed to backyard birds in a suet feeder. It’s most advantageous to birds in the winter because that’s when they need high amounts of fat and nutrients to guide them through the frigid weather. Many birds that might not be attracted to seed feeders, like woodpeckers, love suet.
Even though you can buy pre-made suet, you can just as easily make some if you have a little time. Here are a few fantastic user-submitted recipes. (You can find more at our Facebook page.) Feel free to add your own in the comments section too!
Recipe 1
Ingredients:
1 part cornmeal
1 part crunchy peanut butter
1 part lard
Sun flower chips and raisins
Directions:Heat on stove on low until well mixed; then pour onto parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze. Cut to size for feeder.
—Recipe submitted by Erron Pujol
Recipe 2
Ingredients:
1 part Crunchy peanut butter
1 part Yellow cornmeal
Melted bacon grease
Directions:
Mix together. I press this mixture into the plastic suet containers from my store-bought suet. And, I rub it on the tree trunk. The birds love it!
—Recipe submitted by Gerre Foster Slaton
Recipe 3
Ingredients:
1 cup lard
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups flour
3 cups cornmeal
Directions:
Melt the lard and peanut butter, then add the other ingredients. I also throw in seed, nuts, or dried fruit as I have it. I press it into 3 bread pans. When it hardens, I cut each cake in half with a spatula and it pops out of the pans. This gives me six suet cakes that fit perfectly in my cages.
—Recipe submitted by Carrie Nygard
Recipe 4
Ingredients:
1 cup melted lard or beef suet
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups quick oats
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar (optional)
Directions:Melt lard and peanut butter together on a low burner. Take off heat, and add remaining ingredients. Spread on a cookie sheet, and allow to cool in the refrigerator until the mixture is just hard enough to cut into pieces. Store in freezer bags and use as needed. The birds love it!
—Recipe submitted by Susan L. Fessler
Recipe 5
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups lard,
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (melt)
3 cups of cornmeal
3 cups quick cooking oats
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup shelled sunflower seeds
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
Directions:
Mix thoroughly and put in cupcake papers in cupcake pan. Refrigerate until hard. Take out of cupcake papers and put in plastic bag and store in fridge. My birds eat it all year long and it goes fast.
—Recipe submitted by Nancy Stewart Haydock
Recipe 6
My grandmother’s recipe:
1lb of lard and some bacon grease (or any fat of your choice)
2 cups of peanut butter
6 cups of cornmeal,
5 cups of flour
Directions:
Melt the lard and peanut butter together, then add the cornmeal and flour to the melted peanut butter and lard. Stir the mixture well. Put on a tray feeder, in a suet cage, or in a tin can. If you make the whole recipe and have too much, it freezes very well.
—Recipe submitted by Prairie Birder
69 Comments
Please can I add, bacon fat has nitrates not good for humans worse for birds! Sugar is not needed, neither is salt. Salted peanut butter isn’t part of their normal diet. Feed the birds? Absolutely! But be wise to their needs and health.
Suet:
Equal parts of lard and unsalted crunchy or smooth peanut butter-1 cup of each
Add a total of 4 cups of goodies!
Chipped sunflowers, mixed bird seed, cornmeal,left over baking nuts that may have gone stale, raisins currents.
Healthy for them and easy to make! I don’t melt the two fats, soften and use a mixer. Melting works, takes a while to set up.
Press or pour into lined pans chill and cut to shape and size.
Leftover cooked mashed white or sweet potatoes as well as cooked rice & pasta are also enjoyed mixed in submitted suet recipes by my backyard bird visitors
Go to your meat department and ask for any beef fat…… it’s free. Render the fat into melted lard and go from there. Much cheaper and you are utilizing the beef fat instead of them discarding it.