How exactly do you render suet? I don't know anything about it.

It's really simple. Purchase white kidney or loin beef fat from a butcher. It's inexpensive. Now for the larger woodpeckers you can stop right here. They'll eat the raw chunked fat.

To render suet, and make cakes to attract a wide variety of birds, ask the butcher to grind the fat. Put it in a big pot; you don't want to fill the pot any more than half full of the fat, less would be better.

Heat it over medium-low heat until all the fat melts. It took a couple hours, or more, for me to do the six pounds of fat. Watch it closely; the fat can flash into flames if it gets too hot.

As the fat melts, there will be bits of "cracklings" floating in it. Strain the fat to remove all the solid bits.

Let the suet solidify, and then do the process over again.

The rendered suet will keep for up to a year in the freezer.

I mix the finished product half and half with peanut butter. Then add any combination of hulled sunflower seeds, whole wheat flour, oats, chopped corn or chicken scratch, peanuts, raisins, whatever you have on hand that birds like to eat.

Pour it into molds or a baking dish until it hardens, cut into blocks that fit your feeder, and serve.

You can search the web and find hundreds of "recipes" for ideas of things to mix into the suet.

Wow, you're birds are lucky to have you!

I tried that once, never could get the fat to melt. Now I just buy chunks of the fat and hang them like that and the birds go crazy over it. The woodpeckers really like the little bits of meat that might be attached, too.

You're a mad melter, Caroline! Boy, you won't have all this time once you and Harry have a puppy! NOW we now what your surprise is, right?

That's right Flamingo. Once I saw the newborns' picture I knew I couldn't keep "Sam" a secret until the end of February.

As for melting the fat, it did take a long time. I think I would have had quicker results doing a small batch at a time. I dumped the entire six lbs in an 8 qt. pasta pot, put the cover on, and let nature take its course.

You should have made yourself some Suet Pudding too! I would have been on your doorstep asking if you needed help eating it. You think the woodpeckers and other birds love your suet? They don't hold a candle to my love for Suet Pudding. LOL

Now Vicki, Vicki, Vicki. (Tongue clicking noises here.)

You can not make a post like that one without also including the recipe.

Talk about riding the teacups? LOL Not posting the recipe is a real infraction. LOL

Is "suet pudding" like the British Christmas/Plum pudding?

Recipe, recipe, recipe.

If you post the recipe, I'll try to make it. If it turns out, you're invited to come eat it! How's that for a deal?