Home Made Suet Sans Corn Meal (5 Viewers)

[Bob D]

I've typically used suet recipes that call for peanut butter, cornmeal, oats and flour (although not always all three) with a base "fat" of lard.

My typical ingredients are lard, crunchy peanut butter, flour and cornmeal plus lots of peanuts and sunflower hearts and some dried fruit. I make large suet cakes (two pounds of lard) and have a problem with the corn meal settling out after pouring into a mold. Therefore one part of the suet cake is sans peanuts and sunflower hearts.

Therefore I'm not a big fan of cornmeal and wonder if it is necessary to add hardness to the block to maintain its' shape in temperatures close to F 60 degrees? And this raises the question of using more oatmeal if needed to add consistency.

Another question, is there any reason why I can't just use lard and sunflower hearts and peanuts?

Thanks!

 

[DownyWP]

Are you melting the lard and peanut butter before adding the cornmeal and flour? I find that the suet cakes hold together much better if I melt the lard and peanut butter myself. As to cornmeal, it helps to thin out the peanut butter so that the chickadees don't choke on it, it also acts as a binding agent along with the flour, and helps to prevent melting during the hotter months. I don't use oatmeal but instead add about 2 cups of nuts and sunflower hearts.

One more thing, if you were to melt down true suet(aka rendered tallow from beef), the block would be a lot more firm than with lard. However, in my town, suet is a lot more expensive than lard.