Official YardCrap Suet

A friend asked for my suet recipe.
Most use those store bought suet cakes, but they don't go over well in my yard. They are handy and better than nothing. About the only good one is the meal worm one.
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Here is some real suet you can buy. No need to as they prefer home made. I can't give that stuff away, but my birds are spoiled.

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This attracts birds who do not eat seeds. Some seed eaters also love it. (Warblers, Nuthatches, Wrens, Chickadees, Titmice, Thrashers, Thrush, Woodpeckers love it -- Finch and Sparrows don't care for it, Cardinals will peck it).

For 30 years have been making my own mix. I have tried all sorts of ratios. In Winter you can use more peanut butter, but it melts in Summer so then use more corn meal. Trial and error (and birds) have taught me some things. One thing is that this mix draws song birds and woodpeckers.

On the web there are as many recipes as there are idiots. It aint that complicated. That is just people pretending to be clever.
Peanut butter and corn meal is all you need and is the best recipe. In Winter I might mix in some lard, but no need.

Do not mix in things like seed. Seed is already hard enough for birds to crack open, making it slippery is not a plus. Any "secret" ingredients you come up with are best served separately in another feeder. The same is true for buying mixed seed. Don't do that. Buy separate seeds and put them in different feeders.

This aint real suet. I have out some real suet as I am a nut, but birds prefer this.
I buy the cheapest peanut butter. I use crunchy. I use self rising yellow cornmeal.

A typical batch for me is 12# (best buy is 3# jars) of peanut butter and 10# of corn meal (yellow makes a more colorful suet). That gives you 22 pounds of suet. You can do the math to make more or less, but basically a 1 to 1 is good. Like I said, more oil in Winter is good.
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Assemble a few clean tupperware type bowls. Clean is VERY important, I spray my down with alcohol to get them a sterile as possible.
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- put a big pot on the stove on med heat. You are not really cooking, just keeping things liquid so you can mix it together. I suppose the self rising cornmeal does expand some, but not noticeably. You are not making cake or cornbread. You are not cooking, you are mixing.

- put a 64oz jar of peanut in the microwave until it is liquid (several minutes) - pour into pot and repeat.

- after the pot has all the hot, liquid peanut butter - stir in the corn meal. Stir a lot or the bottom will burn.

- pour into clean bowls and you are done.

No refrigeration is needed. It will keep for months. It will be softer than what you buy. It is tasty food, you can eat it too.

I use a spade drill bit to put holes in a piece of cedar or oak and pack the "suet" in. Birds seem to like that presentation, but will eat it from a cage or just a bowl. You can buy some logs already made.

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