Suet Recipe
Suet Recipe
1 Cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)
1 Cup lard (real lard not Crisco)
2 Cups oats (Old fashioned…not minute)
2 Cups cornmeal
1/3 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup flour
Mix all ingredients together. Shape into cakes for feeder basket or make balls to mash into holes drilled in a feeder log.
You can add seeds if you like…the birds surely will.
OR
Suet for the Birds
3 c. cornmeal
1 c. cup flour
1 c quick-cooking or old-fashioned oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 c. shelled sunflower pieces (optional)
1/2 c coconut (optional)
1 c. crunchy peanut butter
1 c. lard
Combine dry ingredients. Melt peanut butter and lard. I melt it in a pyrex pitcher in the microwave for about 2 minutes. (When I double the batch I heat it for 3-4 minutes.) Mix well with the dry ingredients. It can be shaped into balls by hand or with a cookie scoop or it can be pressed into a rectangular container and then cut into whatever size or shape you need. Let them sit out a few minutes to harden a bit.
If the birds don’t seem to notice it, don’t despair. When I first started I hung some suet balls off the back porch. They hung there for many months until they were covered with black mold. One day I looked out and the chickadees were pecking away at it. I put some fresh out and they have gobbled it up ever since. All my birds love it. It brings in red-bellied and downy woodpeckers that I wouldn’t have otherwise.