Feeding Our Feathered Friends

1st: Render the Suet

About a half pound of suet makes a cup melted.

To render it , first chop it into little pieces. You can use a meat grinder or a knife. Melt it slowly , preferably in a double boiler, or you can just use a frying pan. Cover the pan or pot, cook over medium until you get some fat, then uncover and cook until the bubbling stops. When all that is left are fat and cracklings, remove from the heat, cool a bit, then strain. Let it cool until it is almost firm, then melt it again so it will set harder.

Rendered suet will last almost indefintely in the refrigerator, fresh about 2 weeks. Both can be frozen. Before adding any other ingredients to a recipe, let the suet thicken a little. You can use whatever you like to mold the mixture, experimenting with dry ingredients such as flour or cornmeal to get the consistency you like. You can use tuna cans, muffin tins, or aluminum pie plates for molds. Now that you have melted your suet, here are some recipes to feed your feathered friends.

Bird Glop

• 1 part peanut butter
• 1 part suet
• cornmeal

Mix all together until you get the consistency you want. Add more cornmeal if you want a harder, more stable product. After it has cooled, place chunks in a mesh bag (like from oranges or onions)and hang, put on your platform feeder, or spoon into a feeder log (log with holes drilled in it). If you have some pinecones, you stuff them with the bird glop , or put some in a plastic soap dish and tie to a tree.

Bird's Delight

• 1 cup melted suet
• 3 tablespoons cornmeal
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup cracked corn

Melt the suet, then cool slightly. Add other ingredients. Let set, then cut into chunks.

Miracle Meal

• 4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup lard or melted suet
• 1 teaspoon corn oil
• sunflower hearts
• peanut hearts
• chopped, soaked raisins

Melt the lard or render the suet; stir in cornmeal, flour and corn oil. Spike with sunflower hearts, peanut hearts, raisins. Let set, then cut into chunks.

Note to Michiganders:

A good reason for feeding suet mixes all year: this one is reported to be attractive to bluebirds, who are summer residents in Michigan. And bluebirds, under pressure from habitat loss and aggressive immigrant species, need all the help they can get.

A suet-less version of Miracle Meal can be made form 1 part peanut butter, 4 parts cornmeal, 1 part flour and 1 part vegetable shortening.

Finch Fries

• 1 cup millet
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup cheese, cubed
• suet
• sand for grit

Combine millet, bread crumbs and cheese in one of several small containers. Sprinkle with a pinch of sand. Grind or chop the suet, then render it. When cool and slightly hardened, pour into suitable containers. Chill. Small containers can be placed directly on the feeding platform or the molded mixture can be put in mesh bags. ( A little sand or commercial bird grit can be added to all these recipes.)

Coconut Cakes

(Especially good for woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches)

• 2 cups rendered suet OR white vegetable shortening or lard
• 4 cups packaged coconut; sweetened is okay (or about 1 fresh coconut, grated)

Warm the fat slightly in a pan. Finely chop the coconut in a food processor or with a sharp knife. Mash the coconut and fat together. Chill until firm.

Make muffin-pan cakes, a loaf from which you can take chunks, or pack into the holes of a feeding log. If you got the coconut form a shell, use the shell as a cup, fill with coconut cakes and hang it out of reach of the squirrels.

Cranberry Hasty Pudding

( A good way to recycle aging holiday leftover like cranberries and nuts.)

• 2 1/2 cups (1 lb.) chopped or ground suet
• 1/2 cup salad oil (recycled will do)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups water
• 2 cups cranberries (or currants, raisins, blueberries)
• 1 cup nut meat (peanut hearts or chopped peanuts will do)
• the piece de resistance: 1 1/2 cups crumbled high-protein puppy biscuits

Combine suet, oil and sugar in a big pot; stir. In a bowl, combine the cornmeal and water; add to the pot. Add berries and nuts. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until quite thick (about 5 minutes simmering after boil). If too thick, add more water. Remove from heat, stir in the puppy biscuits. Mold into cupcakes, loaves, flats, whatever you wish. Chill.

Suet Seed Cake

• 4 cups ground suet
• 1 cup sunflower seeds, raw, unsalted
• 1/2 cup millet

Mix seeds and millet together and mix into the melted and cooled suet. Pour into muffin tins to set.

Suet and Peanut Butter Cake

• 2 cups ground suet
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 cups finely cracked corn
• 2 cups yellow cornmeal

Melt suet. When cool, add corn, cornmeal, and peanut butter. Pour into muffin tins and allow to harden.