Homemade Bird Suet Recipes

These homemade bird suet recipes can attract all sorts of birds to your yard, including titmice, juncos, wrens, chickadees and woodpeckers. While suet, the fat around the kidneys and loins of sheep and cows, may not be an integral part or even a small part of your diet, suet is a terrific binding agent for treats for birds.

Homemade Bird Suet Recipes
Peanut Butter Cakes
1 lb chopped suet
¼ cup peanut butter, crunchy
¼ cup sunflower seeds, shelled and slightly chopped

Melt suet over low heat.
Add peanut butter. Stir until melted and combined.
Add sunflower seeds and stir.
Pour into mold, pie pan or muffin tins
Cut as needed. Store leftovers in the freezer until you need them.

Yummy in the Birdie's Tummy
1 lb rendered suet
2/3 cup black oil sunflower seeds
¼ cup chopped nuts
1 1/3 cup wild bird seed mix

To render the suet:
Place chopped suet in a sauce pan over low to medium heat. Cook until the fat turns into liquid. Strain through fine cheesecloth and let harden. Repeat cooking and straining.

Mix together all other ingredients. Add the suet and combine well. Pour into molds, cake pans or pie pans and let cool. Cut to size and freeze leftovers for later use.

Recipes with Suet Substitutes
You can use lard or vegetable shortening instead of homemade bird suet in your recipes. However, the amount of dry ingredients will have to be adjusted to keep the right "moisture." To ease you into lard and vegetable shortening recipes:

Crumbles for the Birds
1 cup lard
1 cup peanut butter, crunchy
2 cups quick oats
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour (can substitute white flour)
1/3 cup sugar
¾ cup chopped raisins, nuts and/or dried fruits

Melt lard and peanut butter together. Add all other ingredients. Crumble the mixture for your birds. Roll leftovers into balls and freeze until needed.

Cracked Up Suet
½ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup peanuts, shelled
¼ cup raisins or chopped dried fruits
¼ cup cornmeal
¼ cup cracked corn

Mix all ingredients together well and serve.