Bird Watching: Question: making suet for first time., 1 by Chillybean

Chillybean wrote:
I used to use lard, but now what I do is save the fat from ground beef. This needs to contain NO onions, garlic, etc. I drain before adding those things. Chill which separates the water from the grease, then dump the water/gelatin down the drain. I have never counted how many pounds of beef worth of fat. I keep adding to one of those plastic Blue Bunny half gallon ice cream containers until it is full.

After getting silly reactions from the grocery stores' meat departments, we will try to get suet from a meat locker. The closest one is really out of our way, so I will stick to the beef drippings for now.

How thick did you make your batch? I usually divide mine by putting about only an inch or two into lunch meat containers. Then depending on what I use the suet for, I can plop one in a cage, or slice with a knife to cram into our "suet tree".

I do not bother with putting in nuts, berries, or seeds, since we have those things elsewhere in the feeding area. And if I remember, the birds just picked that stuff out. Just the fat, PB, oatmeal, whole wheat flower, corn meal and duck feed. We have a duck so this is already on hand. The original recipe (Zick dough, the improved version) called for chick starter and to make sure it is NON-medicated. The medication is anti-biotics. I put a higher concentration of fats to other things so it isn't so crumbly. But crumbly is ok, too. Nearly every bird we have in the winter will eat it regardless of how it turns out.