Lard or Beef Suet?? (1 Viewer)

[canonman77]

Hi Guys, Im going to have a go at making my own Fat cake/ Fat Balls. What I want to know Is, Is Lard or Beef Suet the best to use & what seems to be the best recipe. Below Is a list of what Im going to put In them, I was going to make one long piece & put that In my fat ball holder..

1, Crushed Peanuts.
2, Dried Fruit.
3, Dried Mealworms.
4, Mixed Bird Seed.
5, Oatmeal to bind.

Would this recipe be ok to use? or dont It really matter what you put In It.

Suggestions would be very usefull.
Thankyou. I would also like to hear your successes.

Sean..

 

[karpman]

Hey mate sounds good recipe!

I always make own now in different forms and prefer beef suet i also add a good dollop of peanut butter and it's go's down a treat!

I added some black pudding the other day the magpies ans starlings liked it!

I like to experiment a little me and my 3 and half year old love making the mess!

Cheers leme me now how you get on.

Karpman

 

[joannec]

I use lard, mixed wild bird seed and peanuts and the birds love it, including great spots and nuthatch. Your recipe sounds good too and I'm sure there will be lots of customers at your restaurant! :t:

 

[DaveN]

I used to use the same recipe...well very similar to Joanne and that always went down a treat with Great Spot Woods, Nuthatches, LTT's etc. Your recipe sounds good enough to eat, Sean and I'm pretty sure the birds will think so too.

 

[canonman77]

It does sound good enough to eat. I go tomorrow to get my bits & bobs along with an Ice cream scoop to make the round balls. Fingers crossed they like It. Will keep you posted.

Sean.

 

[Ditch]

Sean; In my own (bitter!) experience; Lard is a complete waste of time. It's just too soft and disintegrates. (Well; It never really integrated in the first place!)

Suet? What? 'Atora'? Fair play to ye ~ If you're a millionaire!

Word to the wise, mate; Dripping. Look for it near the butter and marg', in the cold cabinets. About 40p for a 500g block. That's the kiddie!

Get a cake tin ~ or what ever. Half fill it with ye finest ingredients. (Try putting peanuts through a Blender. Produces 'granules' with little effort). Place that on the work top. Plenty of news paper underneath.

Melt the Dripping in the micro wave. Even better? Put the Dripping in a pyrex jug first. Then melt it in the micro wave! (Karpman's kiddie would Love the former idea, I'm sure! Watch Daddy get 'Emotional')

Pour the liquid over the solids. Fork it all about a bit. Pay extra attention to the sides and corners. Pause, to let the horror of having a 'Push Up' bottom to the cake tin drive home. Be at least a Little grateful that 'Ditch' thought to mention the news paper.

Top up with solids. Pour on more liquid. Fork that about. Finally, level off with solids and baste the whole with now rapidly cooling liquid. Go somewhere.

Inside an hour, come and scrape the tendrils of fat off the surface. Break the bigger stuff off the paper and put that back in the jug for next time. Pop the 'Cake' out of the tin and Serve.

Absolutely fantastic! Summer or winter. Block lasts ages and will feed all comers. Make or buy a suitable sized wire basket to present yours in and away ye go :t:

 

[John P]

Beef dripping is what you want.

 

[Cee Jay]

Sean
If you are at our place tomorrow I will show you what we use,
Cheers
John

 

[captaincarot]

now me granny always used to goto the local butcher and ak him for a lump of suet, he would come back with a big white thing about half the size of me head which she would stick a knitting needle through shove some string through the hole and hang it off the table., it would then disappear in a cloud of tits for ages.

so it might just be that your local butcher could get you some raw suet that might just melt down if you asked. an it was cheaper than suet from anywhere else

 

[barnstormer]

Gonna try some fruit based fat balls and see what they are like. Bought a couple of tins of fruit (strawbs and rasps) am gonna push them thru a sieve and mix with melted dripping then add rehydrated dried raisins and sultanas then top up with crushed nuts and sunflower hearts.The whole thing should have a red tinge. Am gonna try and see the butcher for some suet for my next lot if i can get it for nowt or a small fee.Tried a test last week shop bought v home made balls, result home made gone in less than a day shop bought still there after a week............wonder what came out on top in that test ?.

 

[Mirta]

Last year I prepared balls using minced raw suet and sunflower seeds – birds ate it, but it did not seem they really loved it. Maybe the problem was that I did not have a proper holder for the balls. Last week I prepared a new batch, made of lard, cornmeal, rolled oats, ordinary wheat flour, chopped raisins, sunflower and (lots of) crashed peanuts. I put warm mixture into muffin cups and let it cool. First piece that I put out (about 100g, in a new, more suitable, holder) disappeared in couple of hours! The rest of “muffins” is now waiting in the freezer, since temperatures here are above 15oC – too warm for lard.

 

[keith clowes]

fat feeder

These are the feeders that i make for my bird feeding stations

 

[canonman77]

excellent ideas there guys for me to go at, I have some shop bought which im waiting until they have gone first & then I will get at It, Im going to put my mixture In yogurt pots with string through the bottom, wait until it sets & then hang them in the hawthorn tree in the garden, also I got some pine cones which have some stick stuck into them, im going to smear my suet mix in the gaps & then stick them in a big planter using the stick. I shall send some pics a.s.a.p.

Sean..

 

[barnstormer]

The pinecone trick worked for me last year,and at the minute the birds love my fruit based fatballs especially the starlings who fight over the feeder.
my recipe was,
beef dripping
soaked raisins and sultanas
sunflower hearts
pinhead oats
crushed peanuts
a tin of strawberries and raspberries (pulverised)

 

[BarryH]

Pretty new to the forum, but if it can get guys from Rotherham and Sheffield discussing the finer points of beef dripping, it must be a great place to be.

 

[Atricapilla]

Can't get Lard,Suet or Dripping here in Turkey,still 19c here anyway so it would probably melt.
What can I use as a substitute to bind everything together for when it cools off in the next couple of months.
Any ideas ???

 

[jogresh]

When i was a lad in south Manchester, my garden birds wouldn't touch lard but devoured suet, i found that the most popular bird cake was just pure suet! I also used to go to a local butcher and get fatty off-cuts of meat for free. Best birds that came to that were G S Woody, L B B Gull and Hedgehog (latter not strictly a bird ).
Used to spread large quantites of seed on our long lawn and developed a huge winter flock of finches, sparrows and doves over the years.
Tremendously enjoyable, really miss it.
In Turkey...hmmm i guess you'd have to ask for sheep fat!
Cheers.

 

[deflepfan]

Hi all! I use beef suet from the grocery store which I melt and run through cheese cloth to strain the solids out before adding my mix:

Peanut butter (Chunky style)
High quality nut/fruit/seed mix**
Additional Sunflower seeds
Nyjer seed (Expensive, but I love my Chickadees)

**Never thought of running through the food processor/blender. Thanks for that great tip!

It sets up quick after adding the mix. A batch for me usually fills four or five trays. I try to always have two or three cakes out, especially just before and just after a storm, and have a batch ahead of need. I freeze the others and set to room temperature before setting out for the birds.

I make these from October through to April/May, the colder months here. Cape Cod bids love it, as do the squirrels, pesky critters! I tried doing the balls, but the squirrels always seemed to be able to get them loose and hail away, so now I just make the cakes and keep in a suet feeder tightly attached to hangers off the deck.

The mix is what I use year round in my feeders.

Sheila

 

[Jack Dawe]

I second those who recommend beef dripping, That's what I use, with peanut chippings as mentioned above. This seems to attract all my usual garden visitors except Bullfinch, Long-tailed Tit and Goldcrest, which probably wouldn't be interested whatever else I added.

If you have Starlings around, bulk out the cake with crumbled bread - it makes it go further and doesn't seem to discourage the birds at all!

 

[barnstormer]

I have just made some fat blocks using lard,re-hydrated sultanas/raisins and added some nyjer seed.Looks a bit unappetising but then i'm not a bird......
Will see how it goes.......