This Bird Suet recipe is a hearty, fat-filled treat that your birds will find not only filling but delicious. While the birds enjoy their treat, pull up a chair to the window and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate with them!
Ingredients for Bird Suet
As always, this is a quick overview of the ingredients for this recipe.
- One cup Lard: Lard is a high-value fat that provides birds with lots of energy quickly.
- One cup Crunchy Peanut Butter: Crunchy Peanut Butter is also a great source of fat for the birds, along with a great flavor and a wide variety of minerals and vitamins.
- One cup Flour: Flour, along with Corn Meal, is a staple in bird suet; one can be excluded, but both Flour and Corn Meal are the ingredients that hold the cakes together.
- Two cups Corn Meal: Corn Meal is a staple in almost all suet recipes.
- Two cups Oats: Old Fashion, Rolled, or Instant makes a great addition to the bird suet.
- 1/4 cup Sugar: Sugar provides a flavor profile and energy for the birds; don’t go overboard with the sugar.
- One pound Chia Seeds: Chia Seeds provide a wide variety of minerals and vitamins.
How do you make Bird Suet?
Suet requires using the oven for a short time and a large mixing bowl along with a pan or container to form the Suet cakes.
Mix the dry ingredients: Flour, Corn Meal, Oats, Sugar, and Chia seeds
Add the Flour, Corn Meal, Oats, Sugar, and Chia seeds. Mix until all the ingredients are mixed evenly.
Melt the lard and Crunchy Peanut Butter
The lard and Crunchy Peanut Butter will melt quickly over medium heat; stirring is required to make sure nothing scorches.
Pour the melted Lard and Crunchy Peanut Butter into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients
Be careful as the melted ingredients are hot. A spoon or whisk should be used to mix the ingredients or wait a bit and allow them to cool. Mix the ingredients until there are no dry pockets found throughout the mix.
Form the cakes
Grease the forming pan or other containers you are planning to use to form the Suet cakes. Before you begin putting the mixture into the pans. Grab a handful of the mixture and make a ball; if the ball doesn’t hold together well, melt 1/4 cup more lard and stir it into the mixture. Begin filling the pan(s) with the mixture. Commercial feeders are built to handle the standard-size cakes that are 4.5 x 4.5 x 1.5. If you have or are going to build your own feeder, it’s your call.
Storing and Freezing Suet cakes
Once you have the mix transferred to the forming pan or containers it’s time to place them in the freezer for a few hours before cutting them into cake-sized pieces to be fed later.
Once the Suet has hardened, you will want to cut the mixture into cake-sized pieces and individually wrap them in plastic wrap for the convenience of being fed later. If you used containers that have no other uses you can wrap the cakes in the containers or remove them from the container and wrap them. Wrapping the cakes will prevent them from drying out and becoming too brittle.
Feeding Suet Cakes
You can buy feeders or build your own feeder.
