Authored by John Gerwin
Thanksgiving week is a great time to make a batch of suet for the birds.
1 cup (crunchy) peanut butter
1 cup lard
2 cups quick cook oats
1 cup white flour
2 cups cornmeal
Melt the lard and peanut butter over low heat. I prefer to do the lard first, because the peanut butter tends to burn if you do it first. Once melted you can turn off the heat source to finish. Stir/whisk in the remaining ingredients. You can pour into any containers you might have that are similar in size to your suet basket, then refrigerate or freeze. This stuff will not melt and run in the summer unless it’s in direct sunlight. Of course, if you want it thicker/drier/stiffer, add a little more flour. Also, since a large size crunchy PB is hard to find, I buy peanuts and use a food processor. Feel free to add fruit, etc. also.
I usually triple (or double) the recipe and mix in a large cake/casserole pan. We have an electric stove with a “bridge” burner that works great for this. When nearly cool, I cut into six squares that fit my baskets. It’s easier to cut/remove this stuff before it is completely cool. However, I often just let the batch cool and then reheat the bottom for just a minute to make it easier to remove, without leaving chunks behind. You can then store these squares, wrapped in Saran wrap or in recycled bags from other food purchases (e.g. a carrot bag).
Note that birds naturally eat saturated fat, so lard is ok. But if you do not want to have it in the house, or support the industry that generates it, then by all means, use some vegetable oil. You may have to adjust the quantities of the other items to make it work.
Super-size Me!
To make a really large batch, you can use the following quantities:
4 lbs. of lard
80 oz. peanut butter
42 oz. Quick Cook Oats
3 lbs. regular White Flour
5 lbs. Cornmeal
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