Ingredients:

1 pound lard
16 to 20 ounces crunchy peanut butter
5 cups all-purpose flour
6 cups cornmeal
3/4 to 1 cup birdseed or sunflower chips
3/4 to 1 cup raisins

Ingredients:

½ cup lard or suet
1 cup birdseed
½ cup peanut butter
2-3 cups cornmeal
½ cup dried fruit (such as raisins or currants)

Directions:

Melt fat and peanut butter together. Stir in seed, fruit and enough cornmeal to soak up the melted fat. Let cool. Spread mix under the scales of pinecones or onto cardboard cut-outs you can hang in a tree. Chill feeders in the refrigerator to harden the mixture.

You can also use the mixture to stuff holes you drill into a small log that you hang in a tree or on a pole; woodpeckers especially like to feed this way.

Lard and peanut butter, on the other hand, make a fine binder for corn meal, flour, raisins and sunflower seed – - – a suet substitute.

Patricia’s recipe:

Suet Recipes

Soft Suet Medley

4 1/2 cups ground fresh suet
  3/4 cup dried and fine ground bakery goods
      (whole-wheat or cracked-wheat bread or crackers are best)
  1/2 cup shelled sunflower seeds
  1/4 cup millet
  1/4 cup dried and chopped fruit (currants, raisins, or berries)
  3/4 cup dried and fine ground meat (optional)

1. Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Allow the suet to cool until slightly thickened, then stir it into the mixture in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.
4. Pour or pack into forms or suet feeders; smear onto tree trunks or overhanging limbs and branches; or pack into pine cones.

Hard Suet Tidbit Cakes

  1/2 lb. fresh ground suet
  1/3 cup sunflower seed
  2/3 cup wild bird seed (mix)
  1/8 cup chopped peanuts
  1/4 cup raisins

1. Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat. Allow it to cool thoroughly, then reheat it.
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Allow the suet to cool until slightly thickened, then stir it into the mixture in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.
4. Pour into pie pan or form, or pack into suet feeders.

Optional or substitute ingredients: millet (or other birdseed), cornmeal, cooked noodles, chopped berries, dried fruit.

Soft Peanut Butter Mix

    1 cup fresh ground suet
    1 cup peanut butter
    3 cups yellow corn meal
  1/2 cup white or whole-wheat flour

1. Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Allow the suet-peanut-butter blend to cool until slightly thickened, then stir it into the mixture in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour or pack into forms or suet feeders; smear onto tree trunks or overhanging limbs and branches; or pack into pine cones.

Hard Peanut Butter Mix #1

    2 pounds fresh ground suet
  1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
  1/2 cup coarse-chopped shelled sunflower seeds

1. Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat.
2. Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended.
3. Stir in the sunflower seeds. Mix thoroughly.
4. Pour into 9 x 13 cake pan and cool
5. Cut into cakes that fit suet feeder
6. Individually wrap the remaining cakes and store in freezer

Hard Peanut Butter Mix #2

    2 cup fresh ground suet
    1 cup peanut butter
    2 cups yellow corn meal
    2 cups fine cracked corn

1. Melt suet in a saucepan over low heat. Allow it to cool thoroughly; then reheat it.
2. Add peanut butter, stirring until melted and well blended.
3. Add dry ingredients to the suet-peanut-butter blend, and mix well.
4. Pour into forms or suet-feeders, and cool until hardened.