Thnks Caroline. I bought some ingredients last year to make some, but just could not find time to do so. I have time this year and now I don't even have to look up my recipe. :) I have everything but the sunflower seeds.
Thanks again.

Linda

We've been making our own suet for about 10 years. Our recipe is:

2 lbs. lard, melted (we use the microwave)

Once the lard is melted, we pour it into a line 9"x13" baking pan (we line it with freezer paper - waxy side up). We then stir in:

approx. 3 cups bird seed
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup cornmeal

We freeze it until hard, remove it from the pan, cut into 8 squares, wrap in aluminum foil and keep in the freezer until ready to use.
Our 'friends' love it...so do the squirrels.

I may try yours Caroline. I stopped using the commercial suet cakes because they added so many weeds underneeth the feeder. I have been giving the birds the balck oil sunflower seeds instead of the seed with all the fillers.

I have alot of bacon grease saved. Could I use that instead of the lard?

Your recipe sounds a lot like mine Caroline. I put a cake out daily for my birds (mostly woodpeckers, titmice, chickadees, etc.).. it won't melt unless temps get up in the 100's so I use it all summer too.

Here's my recipe:
1 lb. lard
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups cornmeal
2 cups regular oatmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour

I melt the lard and peanut butter together on low heat, then mix in the dry ingredients and pour into a wax lined cake pan. If I have raisins or nuts I sometimes add them in too.

Bunny Lover - I think the bacon grease would go bad? I don't know though maybe someone else can answer your question.

Thank you all so much...I can't wait to try these.

Mother used to do something like this: Simply take a mesh cheese bag or mess onion bag, then use bacon grease or ground beef grease, let the grease cool down slightly and then add nuts, birdseed or anything you can think of that birds will enjoy. Form the grease into a ball as it cools, place the grease ball in the mesh bag and cool in the refrigerator. Hang suet bag in a tree for the birds to enjoy.

Wow! There's a lot of "suet chefs" here!

Linda...it took me longer to clean up the oily measuring cups and utensils than it did to make the suet cakes. Show us your cakes when they're finished.

Mrs. Marv...That's a brillant idea to line the baking dish with wax paper. I'll be doing that next time. I woke up this morning thinking about to warm the bottom of the pan to get the cakes out, without melting the lard too much. Problem (for next time) solved!

Bunny Lover...I found several recipes on the 'net that used bacon grease. For winter feeding I think they'd be fine. I'm using beef suet in my next batch. I didn't have any on hand, and I did have lard so used it.

I'm putting a link below to a Blue Bird site; they have many, many recipes for variations of suet cake. They also have more "crumbly" variations to feed in a pan to the bluebirds.

Glenda...Howdy girlfriend! The onion bags are great to use to hold suet balls, if you have the old fiber ones. Don't use the one made out of plastic. The birds can tangle themselves up in it and not be able to break or peck free. That's something I just read while searching for recipes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plethora of suet recipes and Blue Bird info

I've made my own suet cakes for a long time. Bunny, like Caroline said, the Sialis site has many recipes...lots use bacon grease. I use bacon grease in the winter suet and the birds go nuts over it....they absolutely love it. Just made a fresh batch today.......

~Kathy~

I'm surprised the recipes use lard, not suet. I guess real suet can be hard to find these days.

Love those blackbirds in the kitchen!

Caroline, I'm sure back THEN they didn't make the plastic onion, etc bags.

Mother was a bird lover, so I know IF there were plastic ones, she would not have used.

Always had her binoculars and bird book handy for bird viewing :o)

Alisande From the recipes I've researced you can use pork lard, bacon grease, or beef suet. I'm getting my beef suet from the local butcher. It will be a combo of the "real" kidney suet and regular beef fat trimmings.

I'm going to render it before making the cakes. From what I understand it's not necessary to render it, but it does make the cakes last longer if you do.

Glenda...I'm sorry; I didn't intend for the "onion bag suggestion" come across wrong. I know your Mom's were the fiber ones. I've used them, too.

I just wanted to share what I'd read about the new onion bags. I was surprised to learn they're made of plastic now. I buy my onions loose, and hadn't really paid attention to how the newer bags are made.

I have noticed plastic "burlap" bags at the feed store. That really blew my mind.

I think you're just about the sweetest person sitting at the table. I always look for your posts and responses. I hope you know I'd never intentionally say anything to hurt your feelings. It wasn't meant that way...

Big hugs!

Wow thanks for the recipe!
I am going to check with my Uncle Gene in the nursing home and see if he has a suet holder.

Oh, I definitely didn't take you wrong. I just said I knew that WHEN mother was living and fed the birds, that plastic of that sort was not in existence.

Will never forget, one Thanksgiving, mother had a short, very short clothes line between two fairly new trees. She hung the "slop bucket" on that line, filled with leftovers and watched a possum climb into that bucket to have a feast!

Oh Glenda...what a memory you brought back. My Mother did the same thing. She had a hook attached to the old elm tree out back and hung a bucket on it to feed "the woods critters". We loved watching out the window at dusk to see who would show up for dinner from the bucket....

~Kathy~

Hi Kids,

I made my own suet cakes for the first time last winter. I used the raw suet from the grocery, melted down in a pan over a low heat on the stove. I added a bunch of stuff, thistle seed, peanut butter, corn meal, walnuts, rasins, what ever I had on hand. I put it into loaf pans that I had lined with plastic wrap. The birds loved it but I think they liked the raw suet right from the grocery a little better. It was a fun project and made my house smell really good.

Wow, it's getting to be that time of year again.

sooey

Any reason why the OP said "stone ground" cornmeal? Obviously we don't want self-rising, but why stone ground vs regular?