A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Homemade Suet Cakes

I just got a PM from a new member here inquiring about suet cakes. So, thought it would be a good time of the year to post this again.

Here's the recipes I started from...
Suet Recipes
...but I improvise on them a LOT!

My birds love them...

Cindy

WOW! What great ideas for thing to put in them! ( i had no idea)I got one once for hummers andit melted and got funky. This will give me something to do! And I can pass along the idea to daddy who is retired and "had nothing" to do! thanks for taking the time to share.

mimi...I have a stockpile of suet cakes in my freezer. After I have them in the freezer for awhile in the little plastic containers, I take them out, wrap them in plastic wrap, and put them back in the freezer so I can re-use the containers as molds. My crow LOVES my suet cakes...he's outside right now chowing down on one! If I don't have his cake out there by 7 a.m. he starts screaming until I bring it out. He's rather spoiled!

Welcome to the forum, mimi_in the garden!

Cindy

My Stepmother thanks you!!! yeah! Daddy made these!Consider this a cyberhug! Thanks so much. Now for me to make some over the weekend. Just tackled Martha Stewarts mile high apple pie. It was yum. Never thought of making these for the Budgies. They could eat them?I guess huh? Wouldnt they "melt" in the house? Mimi

Not a good idea, trust me on that one!
I made some for Lola out of all her treat foods...
You talk about a MESS! I had to give her a bath when she was done. I gave the rest of them to the outside birds. They seem to be a little more "tidy" when they eat than Lola is.


Cindy

Cindy - can you use turkey or chicken fat in them or does it have to be bacon grease?

Hmmm...I use everything. I use mostly lard to hold them together, and add a little bacon grease...because the bacon grease alone wouldn't keep them firm enough to stay together. I've had grease left in a pan from frying chicken, etc. and used some of it along with the lard. If I have fat from chicken or pork chops or whatever I like to put it on the dry stuff first, to moisten it, then add the lard.

Did that make any sense at all?

...sometimes when I start typing what's in my head it kinda turns into rambling...and then suddenly I realize the whole post has gone awry.
Like I think it just did.....

So Cindy, do you think those would ship well? My mom loves her birds and she is in Utah. She and dad are so hard to shop for and I love doing homemade things for them. They might really enjoy bird food. Since I have never bought them before, would a small flat Tupperware container work for the mold and do they actually get hard and dry? Lots of questions, huh? Guess I should check out the web link.

Thanks Cindy I have about 5 crows hang around my house so I will save all my birds left overs and put in them why not I make food treats for my Sugargliders all the time.
Jimmy

I made suet for my birds and they haven't eaten any of it. I used suet from the meat market, rendered it down and added a bag of wild bird seed.

Should I have added something else?

Amigatec.

Question,
Have you ever put out suet before???
Or is this the first time??

And what kind of birds do you already have
in your yard???

Amigatec...I would think that would be a good start. It may be that the right birds just haven't found it yet. I find that I mainly get downy woodpeckers, creepers and such coming to mine. Try putting out sunflower seed in feeders, if you haven't already, to get them coming around, and they'll find the suet.

I have put out suet for 2 years now and haven't had any problems with it. I have right next to my black oiled sunflower feeder.

I changed it out with some store bought suet, so maybe that will find it. If they start eating it I may melt down my homemade suet and add something to it. I do see a few nibbles on the side, but after 2 weeks I would think that they would be eating it up.

Also today I made a shield to go around it so that the bigger birds don't eat any of it.

Did it smell funny???

Sometimes it can go rancid?????

I took it out of the freezer, it didn't smell bad, but it did have more lard in it than the store bought one. It may have been one of the last ones I made when there was more lard than seed.

Maybe warm it up a bit,
and press some more new seed into it..
and add some peanut butter...

Thanks Cindy!
How much lard, shortening, grease do you use instead of the suet?
Do you use the equivilent amount 1/2 lb?

I don't know, Becky.
I never measure anything.

I'm gonna make some suet cakes in a little while, and I'll try to measure...and take some pics.

I have mine on a bush outside my lr window.
They're only about 3.5' off the ground, but Starlings seem to like it.
Starlings are those little black/darkbrown birds right?

The birds haven't taken too much interest in any seeds though. I wonder why?
Anyone have any ideas?

I really need to go out there today and check how much suet is left and make sure it's not frozen.
Is suet something that should be out year round or just when the weather is cold?

You should leave suet out all the time. It rarely, if ever, spoils. I just buy mine for about a dollar a cake. If no Starlings are around one cake will do me aBOUT 2-3 WEEKS. If there are ANY starlings around the longest a cake lasts is about 24-48 hours. Mr. Mocky and Mrs. Mocky, my resident Northern Mockingbirds do an excellent job of keeping the Starlings out of my yard, but allow any other birds to come and freely eat, drink, bathe, and nest. They seem to LOVE the company of any bird species EXCEPT Starlings.

Miss Jamie, try boiling your meat in a pot with enough water to cover it over an inch or two. Then, leave the meat in the water to cool completely. The fat should float to the top and congeal as a thick, white, waxy, crust. This crust IS suet. Scrape the suet off the top of the water and save the suet. Use the rest of the water and the meat in it to make a delicious soup or stew by adding a variety of your favorite vegetables, herbs, and seasonings (that you grow yourself). Melt the suet down and mix in the other ingredients and pour into molds and pop the molds and suet into the freezer to harden. Then whenever you need suet, just take a cake out of your freezer and pop it into your feeder.

oh i'll have to try the ideas here. the only times i ever make them is if we cook bacon. i just use the grease and pour it in a plastic disposable cup and then fill it with asst birdseed. i put twine down inside and then freeze it. when it's done i pop it out and tie it up in the tree. i never makes it to day 2. but i'll have to use the bread crumbs and other asst things mentioned here. i love to watch the woodpeckers go at it!

Wow, what a wide variety of suet recipes. Thanks!!!

I make one for my mockingbirds that they just love.

Patches, that is a PERFECT blend of ingredients for a Mockingbird. Mockingbirds LOVE suet, fruit, and peanuts. Now, mix in a little apple juice or applesauce and you would have the QUINTESSENTIAL Mockingbird suet cake!!!

Once I did put some leftover applesauce in it but it made it a lttle too soft so I had to serve it in a dish. However, I do cut up apples into small pieces and put that in there.

patches

STEP BY STEP SUET CAKES

Huge bowl, with Lola's leftover stuff...
...cashews, Avi-Cakes, Cheese-Its, cereal, etc.



Added a bunch of bread crumbs...



...some cooked rice and bird seed...



...chopped apples, corn meal, smooshed eggshells...



Mix it all up...

...and add melted shortening.
I used 2 1/2 cups of melted shortening for this huge bowl. Depending on how much wet ingredients you use, you can use less or more shortening...just keep adding a little at a time until it gets nice and mooshy and sticks together good.


Pressed into the old containers that store-bought suet cakes came in.
Finished product...

I pop these into the freezer, then when they're solid I put them in baggies. You can leave 'em in the containers, but I have to make suet cakes constantly so I need to re-use the containers everyday.

Thanks for the step by step Cindy. Yours look a LOT better than what I got from the store which looks like more shortening than good food. Will be making my own from now on since instead of Lola, I have kids leftovers to add to the mix. I bet I could just store their crumbs in a baggie until I am ready.

Thank you so much for the recipe and step by step!

wow- what a mix those birdies get- no wonder they come every day! so i can use just regular old shortening that's melted??

what do you put out in summer? i don't put suet out in summer because it will melt and get yucky. last summer i actually put orange and apple pieces in the cage in hopes that some birdies mike like it but none ever ate from it. it got mildewed before they ate. any other suggestions for summer??

That's what I use, and if I have some bacon drippings I save that for the suet cakes and add it, too.


I haven't had a problem with it melting, even on the hottest summer days. But, it really doesn't have much of a chance to melt...the birds eat it so fast. I have gone through 4 cakes today already, and the feeders are empty again. My crow "Whiskey Man" attacks his cake as soon as I go out with it...he can't even hardly wait for me to get it in the holder. He's pretty much a pig.

WOW Cindy, No birds have found mine yet. How close to the house and where people walk in and out are yours?

I keep my suet cakes in a weeping willow tree about 20 feet from my front door.

I only have one tree, and it is right next to my front door.

oh yea! I almost forgot about this...we have like 10 bags of that microwaveable popcorn in the cabinet that nobody likes and it's a spicy cajun butter kind or something like that...can I use that? oh! and there's some stale barbque pork rinds in the cabinet too...can I use those?

Popcorn would be OK if it is popped. Here is a picture of a commercially made suet cake in one of my suet feeders. You can see where the Northern Mockingbirds, European Starlings, Carolina Chickadees, and Carolina Wrens have been chowing down on it.

SUET FEEDER WITH SUET

Yep...make sure you pop the popcorn.
I put popped corn in my cakes a lot.
I'd crush those pork rinds up and add them, too. I use everything in my cakes...old cereal (they love cheerios and corn flakes!), all the leftover bread, rolls and cornbread, old crackers, potato chips, etc. I wash all my eggshells and crush them up for the cakes. Lots of time I add a big scoop or two of peanut butter to the shortening when I'm melting it.

I bought some store bought cakes a few months ago because I needed some more of the plastic containers, and the birds would NOT eat them. I finally had to get them out of the suet feeders and melt them in a batch of homemade cakes.

Can I ask a question here??

Are the birds supposed to get things with
SALT in them??????

Actually we were discussing that subject on Birdersworld.com the other day. Several birds have been seen feeding off livestock salt blocks in pastures and some of us have considered hanging out small salt spools like you buy for rabbits around feeders. I'll have to give that a try and see what happens.

Hello
First time post for me.
I had an idea to share from a combo of postings I read on this topic here today.

Would it be worth trying to form the suet in an ice tray with string placed halfway in the cube to hang for the smaller birds?

Just a thought.

Hi, MLP.....
Welcome to the forum!

That sounds like it would work!
Just make sure you have it tied so the little birds have a place to perch while they're eating it. Or, maybe put the string all the way through, coming out on both sides, so you can tie it right to a limb that they can perch on and eat it.

I think I'll try that...I have a bunch of old ice trays.
My pet/wild crow will probably eat it in one bite, though!

You might have to spray the ice cube tray
with a little bit of pam or something,
so they slide out... ????? ?????

Erm Weezie, suet, like PAM is fat and oil based.

Here is a site they brought up the other day on the forum at birdersworld.com about making suet cakes out of vegetable shortening.

VEGETABLE SHORTENING SUET

This is a great site and very informative! Thanks for posting this.

i haven't made suet cakes, but i know when i put things in ice trays, if i let them harden, they pop out easier than ice does.

Thanks for the welcome.

I had ment to include the idea of the string going all the way through it, or depending on how you can hang it, double up the string putting the loose ends free to tie off at time of hanging.
It would depend on if "all the way through" makes it break up quicker than "double up".
My next suggestion on the same line came to me while in the store, how about for the large spaces to make them in a cupcake size.

The Startlings have beeneating ALL the suet. I hear them outside my bedroom morning whistling and squeaking away as they gobble my precious. precious suet! And they went through 50 pounds of black oil sunflower seed in about a month!

I hung out my first suet cake a few weeks ago, but it was gone a couple of days later. The suet feeder was hanging wide open, so I think a squirrel got it.

They're calling for colder weather for at least the next week now, so I think I'll try again. I'm going to use twist-ties on the suet feeder to try to foil the squirrels though.

Raccoons love suet too. They could be out & about with this warm spell.

i should have asked a question. what about dry catfood? could i add it to the cakes?

I had a huge bag of dog biscuits after Freckles died...and ground them up in the blender and used them in my cakes. I use everything and anything.

I'd put them in the blender first...

ok. i have random pieces of cat food that the cat's dribble around. i figure that might be a good use for it!

Good idea!

I keep all kinds of random stuff like that...in a big zip lock bag in the freezer...then dump it all in the blender every once in awhile and make a kinda flour thing out of it.

Also I save leftover cooked rice in the fridge for whenever I make cakes. (I make suet cakes at twice once a week...)

I just made suet cakes a few minutes ago...and used half a box of old Cheerios in them.

I did not know you could use cooked rice. That is very cool, I always have rice hanging around.

i use the rice to feed the dogs. rice is so much better than any of the other grains for dogs. stands to reason the birds would like it too!

Thorn barks and wags his tail happily and looks at Jiffy with his ENORMOUS puppy eyes, licking his lips hungrily.

thorn, do you want calrose, long grain, or jasmine?

WOOF!

Jiffy if you use cat food in your suet, you MIGHT get Catbirds.

What kind of birds will I get with the suet cakes made from dog biscuits?

A Chihuahuan Raven.

Cindy's suet is a hit!! The birds are fighting over it!
That's a carolina wren a female downy woodpecker and if you look to the right you see my buddy the brown creeper on his way to break up the party!!

I had lots of breeds there all day. I had a nuthatch and a red belly together. And the carolina wren wouldn't budge - he shared meals with lots of birds. He thought he was a very big bird today.
God Bless Cindy!!!

Oh, COOL!!!

Brennan (my grandson) loves to watch the birds fighting over the suet cakes. I usually have 3 cakes on one limb, and there's so many birds there at one time it's awesome.

It sounds like a lot of trouble to make your own suet cakes, but it really doesn't take that long.

Glad you made some...
...but the bad part is, once the birds get used to them, they won't eat the store-bought ones anymore...at least mine wouldn't.

Mine won't either. I have one out now and it has been there for 2 weeks and still not gone. I have to get more suet supplies so they can have the good stuff.

Suet Sub or is a Suet Hoagie?
Hi all

I am having a lot of fun with Cindy's suet recipe. Hubby was late home from work and rejected old garlic bread. I was going to break it up and put in the suet, but I couldn't resist making a suet sub - that's a suet hoagie for all my PA friends
Would would you like that with a side of sunflower seeds?

That is so cute..
I love it!!!

Hi all
I have had so much fun with Cindy's suet recipe. I hope you saw my suet sub I posted earlier. I have a big bowl and I save all bread scraps and such. All my friends save stale high protein stuff - nuts! My bowl looks a lot like the one cindy prepared earlier in this thread.

I'm a one pan/casserole dish kind of gal, so I wanted an alternative to saving old suet containers from store bought stuff. So I started playing ...

Here is my new method:



#1 -- I lined my glas pyrex brownie/casserole pan with "press'seal Freezer wrap. I am not crazy about the regular press'n seal but I am really like the freezer variety.

#2 -- I mixed the bread/nut/rice/etc. scraps in a big bowl with lard melted in the microwave (I mix with a wooden spatula.. me no likey to touchy :p )and then I poured it into the lined brownie pan.

#3 -- I took a length of press'nseal freezer paper and cut it lengthwise. I used one piece length and four shorter lengths and with a pancake I carefully pressed the frezzer part in the suet to create the six cakes.

#4 -- Freeze it!

Once it is frozen I let it sit out a bit and then it falls right out of the pan.

Finally, I break it up,bag it and tag it!

Cool idea for freezing!
(...get it..."cool"...."freezing"...)

I used to make stuff like the suet sub, but I moved my big platform feeder when I dug the new pond and never have gotten around to putting it back up. So all I have right now is the big suet cage things... Now that I really need that feeder put back the ground is frozen solid and i can't dig the hole for the post. :rolleyes:

You know I bet you could go to those Dollar Stores and find yourself those popcycle makers' for kids and spray'em maybe with Pam and do the same kind of thing... only they'd be Suet cakes' on sticks...

Cindy....do you think I can put over ripe bananas in my suet?

I have put over-ripe bananas in my suet cakes several times.

I made these tonight Cindy! I sure hope my birds like them! Will put one out and see! I'm sure they will like them if I made them right!

I am sure they will LOVE them Jessica, but beware, they get spoiled and will NOT eat the store ones after they get the real thing!

Well I like to spoil my birds!

Me too!! So how did the birds enjoy it?

They seem to really like it! It was gone when I got home from work today! I already have a stock pile of stuff for when I make the next batch!

That is awesome Jess. Mine went through another one today so I tossed out a bunch of seed cuz I was busy with the boys when they notices the birds had no food. Will put one out tonight so they all have breakfast tomorrow. I am gathering stuff for the next batch as well.

I can't put anything out at night because the deer and coons eat it! So, I always fill the feeders in the morning! But, in the spring and summer when I have the windows open I can't sleep in because the blue jays make all kinds of noise until I go feed them!

ok i addmit it, i got lazy and bought suit cakes today

i needed new molds