Suet is saturated fat that is used in many traditional British recipes, such as steamed puddings, pastry, and sweet mincemeat. Meat suet adds a dark and rich flavoring to dishes like meat pies, while vegetarian suet is used for lighter foods.
What Is Suet?
Suet is made from the fat that surrounds the kidneys of animals (mostly cows and mutton). The fat is removed from the meat, clarified, chopped, and then boiled in water, which removes any impurities. Upon cooling, the water and fat separate and the remaining fat is suet. Suet has a melting point of between 113 F and 122 F, and a congelation of 98.6 F and 104 F. Its high smoke point makes it perfect for deep frying and pastry.
Rendered suet is suet that has been heated to the melting point. It is typically made into tallow and used in some recipes; tallow is also an ingredient in soap and bird food.
How to Cook Suet
To make your own suet, you'll need to purchase the "suet knobs" of animals. Your butcher may have some, but it's more likely you will have to special order it: the suet is typically removed from the carcass after slaughter and therefore doesn't usually get to market.
Cook suet in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat until it's melted, clear, and golden (about 20 minutes). Pour the rendered suet through a fine sieve into a bowl. Allow it to cool, then freeze the suet until it is firm and white. Used it finely chopped or grated in your recipes and refrigerate or freeze the unused portions.
What Does Suet Taste Like?
Fresh suet has a mild, bland taste, a slightly meaty smell, and a dry, crumbly texture. When it's incorporated into sweet dishes—what the British call "puddings"— it imparts a distinct richness yet somehow avoids making them taste like beef. When used in pie crusts,suet produces a flaky and crispy texturethat makes a good base for a wet filling. A combination of butter and suet creates both the flavor and texture you would want in sweet pie crusts, but for a rustic meat pie suet alone would be more appropriate.
Alternatives to Suet in Your Cooking
You can use a suet alternative in your cooking, but you may not get quite the same results as you would get from the real thing. Still, there are some decent substitutes that will get you close.
Some recipes recommend using frozen butter as a substitute for suet, but this is risky as the butter melts much fasterthan suet and your dish will become greasy and heavy.
If you can't find suet or you just don't want to use it, try shortening instead. One of the advantages of using vegetable shortening is that it is suitable for vegetarian dishes. Before using it, freeze the shortening until it is very firm. Once frozen, grate on a large holed grater so you get more chunky pieces. Once grated, freeze again and only use when you are ready to mix into your recipe. You can also pulse the frozen, grated shortening in a food processor which will clump the shortening and again, more resembles real suet.
Use your frozen, grated shortening as you would in any recipe calling for suet. You can also make the alternative suet in advance and keep it frozen in bags in the freezer if you are going to use it regularly. It will only keep for a month or two at most.
Suet Recipes
The British term both their savory dishes and desserts as "pudding". Each of these recipes calls for suet, in either the meat or vegetarian form:
Traditional Steak and Kidney Pudding
The Best Christmas Pudding
Christmas Mincemeat
Cranberry, Almond, and Orange Christmas Pudding
Where to Buy Suet
You might find meat suet in the grocery store but you can also find it in specialty British food shops or online. Ready-made vegetarian alternatives are also available in leading supermarkets. Look for the brand Atora for both the meat and vegetarian versions.
Storing Suet
Suet should be kept in the refrigerator and used within a few days or you can store it in the freezer, in freezer bags, where it will keep for several months. Rendered suet also will keep for several months at room temperature.
The primary use of suet is to make tallow, although it is also used as an ingredient in cooking, especially in traditional baked puddings, such as British Christmas pudding. Suet is made into tallow in a process called rendering, which involves melting fats and extended simmering, followed by straining, then cooling.
Suet is used in traditional boiled, steamed or baked savoury and sweet puddings, such as steak and kidney pudding, spotted dick and jam roly-poly. It is also used to make soft-textured pastry, dumplings, haggis, mincemeat, Christmas pudding, and a rendered fat called tallow.
Is lard and suet the same thing? - Quora. Lard is rendered pig fat and suet is cow or sheep produced fat. Suet is a hard fat surrounding the kidney and loins. Lard is from the semi soft white fat of a pig.
As mentioned above, suet doesn't have a strong flavor, and that's the point. It's generally considered subtle or mild — even bland. It does have a bit of meaty flavor, but that usually goes unnoticed once it goes through any sort of cooking process.
Beef suet, used in many traditional dishes, is also a great addition to a LCHF diet. Suet is a great source of natural fats, which are essential for a healthy diet. It is also rich in vitamins and minerals, including vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
Its high smoke point makes it ideal for deep frying and pastry production. The primary use of suet is to make tallow, although it is also used as an ingredient in cooking, especially in traditional baked puddings, such as British Christmas pudding.
Raw suet turns rancid quickly in warm weather. It melts when the temperature rises above 70 degrees and might stick to birds' feathers. Gooey feathers are dangerous, so raw suet should be served only during the colder months. Cornmeal and peanut butter can also go rancid quicker, Ken says.
If you can't find suet then we have found that grated vegetable shortening (such as Trex, Crisco or Copha) is a good substitute. To grate the shortening firstly freeze a stick or block of it until firm but not solid (this usually takes about 30 minutes).
Suet should be kept in the refrigerator and used within 5 days if fresh or portion it up using freezer bags where Suet will keep for 6 months frozen then use as needed. Storing Tallow is even easier. Tallow will solidify and keep at room temperature in a sealed container for up to a year and won't go rancid.
A Guide to Suet and Its Alternatives. Suet is a type of saturated fat that home cooks use to add moisture to sweet and savory dishes. Suet has a crumbly texture and stays solid at room temperature, so it can result in a less-greasy pie crust than butter would yield.
Elevate sunday dinners with Atora The Original Beef Shredded Suet. Made with real beef fats, this suet has an authentic flavour and a classic crumbly texture making it suitable for baking.
Suet is particularly attractive to woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, jays, and starlings. Wrens, creepers, kinglets, and even cardinals and some warblers occasionally visit suet feeders. Animal fat is easily digested and metabolized by many birds; it's a high-energy food, especially valuable in cold weather.
In addition to woodpeckers, suet also attracts warblers, wrens, creepers and even bluebirds, except to my yard. Bluebirds hate me. I would definitely put out suet, Ed.But instead of buying just one feeder, I suggest you buy two.
Despite being a fat, consuming healthy Suet or Beef Tallow stimulates the release of glucagon, the hormone that signals to your body that it's time to burn stored fat (visceral body fat) to use for energy leading to weight loss. This makes Suet or Tallow the ideal fat for a Ketogenic Diet.
This rendered suet or tallow can be grated for puddings and dumplings, or it can be melted for deep frying and sealing jars of preserved fruit or jams. In my next post, I'll present some recipes that typify the various types of 18th century foods in which suet was used.
Squirrels will definitely eat the suet you put out for the birds—they love it! If you're finding that your suet it quickly disappearing, then you might have squirrels stealing it (they can take large chunks at once).
Suet for birds can be offered year-round, and it's especially good in fall and winter. Suet is one of the most popular and beneficial foods you can offer birds. In addition, suet attracts multiple species, so you can be sure it will entice lots of feathered friends to your backyard.
"Place the suet feeder well off the ground to keep out predators and squirrels," says Causer. "Birds will also feel more at ease if the feeder is not near dense bushes," she adds. Ideally, feeders should be situated at least 10 to 12 feet away from shrubs or trees.
Cook suet in a heavy saucepan over moderately low heat until melted and clear and are golden, about 20 minutes. Pour through a fine sieve into a bowl, then cool. Chill until firm and white. Finely chop suet.
To fill a suet feeder, simply take off the plastic wrap, keeping the suet in the plastic container, and insert into a suet basket. Hang the basket so that the suet is facing upside down–wild birds like to eat suet from this angle.
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