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The Kitchen Table

Suet Pudding

17 years ago

Have you ever eaten or made it? Oh my heck! It is a favorite of mine and MomBondo's. Our grandmother would make it every Christmas. I have made it many times, however it is hard to find a butcher here that will grind it for me. I guess not many people in Vegas use suet for their birds either. I always get that "look" when I ask for it. LOL

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Comments (12)

mare_wbpa
17 years ago
I had never heard of it til I met my husband. My MIL used to make it for the Holidays with raisins and a vanilla sauce to pour over it. I thought it was delicious but never made it. You bring back some fond, old memories.
susan_on
17 years ago
What exactly is suet?
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A while back I did some reading on lard and the things I remember are -the lard bricks bought in stores are (1) made with fat from all over the pig, even possibly the stuff under the skin which is fairly poor quality and (2) partially hydrogenated (?) and probably processed and bleached in ways I didn't even find out about. -all lard is not created equal, different fat from the pig is better or worse quality for cooking purposes -usually what's cited as the best quality lard is called "leaf lard". It is a very dense white fat from around the kidneys (called suet in cows). I would suspect that your 10 gal's of lard includes fat trimmings from all over the pig. Nothing wrong with that per se and its probably not partially hydrowhatevered. You might want to ask how they come up with the lard though. As an experiment last April? May? I got leaf lard from a butcher shop outside of town than gets and butchers hogs on site. I was suspecting the sort of suet looking balls like cows suet but it was more...flat and long and quite big, short of butterfly shaped - like maybe it was wrapped around the kidney and pressed. It also looked almost encapsulated in a film. Ok - well I'm pretty squeamish but I carried on! I cut half of it into smaller chunks and put in my LC dutch oven with a couple tablespoons of water, put in oven pre-warmed to 350, then lowed the temperature and rendered my own lard. (I threw away the other half) Wow, the smell was horrendous! :) I could have let it render more but after it was mostly rendered I was tired of gagging (this with a window open) I scooped out the bigger chunks, poured it through a strainer and then cheesecloth once or twice and ended up with probably 3 cups of really nice looking white lard (actually it turns white in the fridge). This is the sort of thing that really argues for good vent hoods in kitchens not the crappy microwave ones that are everywhere now days. I felt like my throat, my apt, was coated in.....something. Still I think if you are a foodie and want to splurge once in a while on that authentic flavor of tortilla's fried in lard, or really flaky pie crust, its not that bad. And certainly better than the hydrogenated stuff. There is a Canadian brand that advertises as non-hydrogenated. I wanted this for pie pastry experiments but of course I'm more a reader, thinker and the actual experimentation doesn't often happen so I haven't actually used any yet LOL! So I can't tell you whether its as wonderful as the foodie's articles would lead us to believe. I'm not sure how long its good in the fridge where half of it sits to this day. I froze the other half. There, more than you ever cared to know about lard:)
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jannie
17 years ago
My mother used to make real mincemeat using suet, raisins and lots of other ingredients. I didn't like the way it looked and smelled, so i wouldn't eat it.
alisande
17 years ago
Suet is the hard fat that forms around organs. It's different from the soft fat seen on steaks, etc. -- but just as bad for your heart. (Sorry, Vicki!)

I buy suet for the birds. Only one of my supermarkets sells the real thing; the rest sell soft beef fat and call it suet, or they don't carry either one.
susan_on
17 years ago
Eeewww!!
vicki_lv_nv
Original Author
17 years ago
Oh, I know it is bad for you...however, since it has been years since I have had it and doesn't look like I will be having it anytime soon either. :>(

But, I sure would LOVE to have some!
Cherryfizz
17 years ago
My SIL's mother makes steamed suet pudding for Christmas every year. One of her daughter's finally learned how to make it so the recipe can carry on. I would rather have Christmas cake or plum pudding myself. My Mom would put suet in her mince meats and plum puddings but they were different than suet pudding.

I also give suet coated in seeds to the birds during the winter.

Anne
Eliza_ann_ca
17 years ago
My mom always put suet in her Christmas pudding,and the taste was sooooooo good.....much better than using margarine or butter....she only made it once a year for Christmas.
gazania_gw
17 years ago
Suet Pudding or as we called it, "Johnny Bull" was a must at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter dinners when I was growing up. The recipe below I just copied from Cooks.com. It is just like my Mom made, but she didn't use a lemon sauce. Our sauce was a slightly sweet sauce made with cornstarch, sugar and water and flavored with nutmeg and cinnamon. I never copied Mom's recipe, as I know how bad it is for our health, but I do sometimes long for it on those holidays.

SUET PUDDING (JOHNNY BULL PUDDING)

1 c. chopped suet (kidney suet)
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 c. sugar
2 c. cooked raisins
1 tsp. each ginger, cinnamon, allspice
1/2 tsp. cloves
2 c. milk

Mix 1 cup flour and suet together with hands until all strings are worked out of suet. Cream sugar and eggs together. Sift flour, baking powder and allspice together. Add to cream mixture and alternate with milk and flour/suet. Last add raisins and mix well. Place in a cloth bag and steam over hot water for 3 hours. Serve with sauce.

LEMON SAUCE:

1/2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. butter
Juice of 1 lemon
Grated rind of half lemon
Pinch of salt
1 c. water

Mix all ingredients and cook a few moments. Pour over pudding
vicki_lv_nv
Original Author
17 years ago
Gazania...that looks just like my Grandma's recipe. She didn't do the lemon sauce either...she did the slightly sweet sauce as you mentioned. I think she may have used brown sugar. She steamed hers in coffee cans.

It was sooooo good and we only had it at Christmas time. Maybe she knew back then how bad it was for you, so we only got it as a treat at Christmas. I miss my Grandma.
User
8 years ago
We, too, had Johnny Bull pudding, but only on Christmas Day. I always wondered how it received its name. Now that my mother is going, I make bread pudding and make a vanilla white sauce for Christmas and a lemon sauce for Easter. Memories!
sheilajoyce_gw
8 years ago
Nothing went to waste in the old days.

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