How To Make Suet for Wild Birds

Making suet cakes for wild birds is actually an easy task and suet can be provided for the birds in a number of ways - you don't even need a recipe! Just follow a few guidelines.

Western bluebirds, chickadees, jays, towhees, warblers, woodpeckers and more will come to your yard for suet treats in all seasons, but I suggest limiting homemade suet treats to winter use. It's far too easy for the stuff to melt or go rancid in warmer months.

What is Suet? 

Pure suet is the fatty tissue that gathers around a cow's kidney area. You may be able to get some from your butcher, but in a pinch you can use lard from the grocery store. If you use pure suet, you might like to work outside using an electric frying pan as the task can be smelly.

If you'd prefer to live without the smell, wild birds do enjoy strips of suet straight from the grocery store or butcher shop hanging from a tree branch.

Homemade Suet Cakes

Making homemade suet cakes is simply a matter of melting fat down to a pour-easy consistency, adding a few ingredients of your choosing, then pouring the mixture into a mold. The shape of the mold is determined by the type of suet feeder you'll use.

If you are using lard or shortening for homemade suet cakes, adding equal parts of peanut butter flour will help maintain correct consistency of regular suet cakes.

To this warm and pour-able mixture you could add rolled oats, bird seed, cornmeal, raisins, unsalted nuts and anything else you think the birds would enjoy. Then, pour your warm suet 'soup' into the mold (a bread pan where you could slice off bits for your store bought suet feeder, cupcake tins that you could pierce with wire and hang from a tree, etc.) Specialty recipes are at the bottom of this page.

Keep any unused portions in the freezer for up to two months. 

The Suet Feeder

You can make your own suet feeder or buy one for a few bucks. I've fed suet using many methods - placing home made suet cakes in an onion bag, bending wire mesh around my cakes - but by far the most preferable suet feeder is one that is both easy to clean and protected by the elements.

Here's an example...

for store bought suet cakes or homemade suet (see recipes below)...

...it's 10inW x 7inD x 9inH and has a lifetime finish. Simply hang it from a tree, clean and refill as needed and it doesn't look like some ugly fat hanging around your yard. The birds will love you for it!

(To make your own rustic suet feeder, visit Walter's page here.)

Here's a few more suet recipes you can make at home for the birds:

Birder's Oat Cakes

1 pound suet cut in small 1" pieces 
1 cup rolled oats (quick cooking is best)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup chunky peanut butter 
1 cup mixed wild bird seed
1 cup sunflower seeds

1. Melt suet in pot or microwave.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients and blend well.

3. Pour into paper-lined muffin tins.

4. Chill until hardened or freeze.

Peanut Butter Cake

1 part melted beef suet
1 part chunky or smooth peanut butter
6 parts cornmeal 

1. To the melted suet add peanut butter and cornmeal.

2. Spoon into paper-lined muffin tins and cool.

3. Store in the freezer until you're ready to use.

Birder's Delight (Nut 'n Apple Cake) 

1/2 pound of suet
2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup unsalted nuts
3 chopped apples
1 cup raisins
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup of cornmeal
1/2 cup white or whole wheat flour
1 cup of smooth or creamy peanut butter
1 cup wild bird seed

1. Mix all ingredients, adding enough suet as required to hold the 'cakes' together.

2. Shape into balls or press into pine cones.

3. Freeze and use as needed.
     

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