Suet

Suet is the raw, hard fat found in beef, lamb, or mutton around the loins and kidneys. It has a melting point between 45 and 50 °C (113 and 122 °F) and solidifies between 37 and 40 °C (99 and 104 °F). Because of its high smoke point, suet is very good for deep frying and making pastry.

Calf suet

People often use suet to make tallow, but it is also an important ingredient in cooking. In Britain, suet is a key part of traditional foods like Christmas pudding. To make tallow, suet is rendered by melting and long simmering, then it is strained and cooled. Sometimes this process is done again to make the tallow even better.

Etymology

The word suet comes from old languages. It started in Anglo-Norman as siuet, suet, then evolved from Old French sieu, seu. This traces back to the Latin word sēbum, meaning "tallow," "grease," or "hard animal fat." The Latin term sēbum has roots in a Proto-Indo-European word meaning "pour out, trickle," linking it to words like sap and soap.

Main article: tallow

Use

In cuisine

Suet is the fat from around the kidneys of beef, lamb, or mutton. Before using it, the connective tissue and other non-fat parts must be removed, and it should be kept cold and used within a few days.

Suet is special in cooking because it makes pastries soft, unlike regular pastry. It is used in many traditional British dishes, like sweet baked puddings such as jam roly-poly and spotted dick, as well as savory dishes like dumplings and steak and kidney pudding. Suet is also an ingredient in mincemeat, sometimes called 'fruit mince'.

Because suet has a lot of energy, explorers in cold weather add it to their food to help meet their high energy needs.

Red-breasted nuthatch feeding on suet

Suet-based recipes

In bird feed

Cakes of suet are popular for feeding wild birds. They can be made with other fats like lard and often include rolled oats, bird seed, cornmeal, raisins, and unsalted nuts.

Properties of common cooking fats (per 100 g)
Type of fat	Total fat (g)	Saturated fat (g)	Monounsaturated fat (g)	Polyunsaturated fat (g)	Smoke point
Butter	81	51	21	3	150 °C (302 °F)
Canola oil	100	6–7	62–64	24–26	205 °C (401 °F)
Coconut oil	99	83	6	2	177 °C (351 °F)
Corn oil	100	13–14	27–29	52–54	230 °C (446 °F)
Lard	100	39	45	11	190 °C (374 °F)
Peanut oil	100	16	57	20	225 °C (437 °F)
Olive oil	100	13–19	59–74	6–16	190 °C (374 °F)
Rice bran oil	100	25	38	37	250 °C (482 °F)
Soybean oil	100	15	22	57–58	257 °C (495 °F)
Suet	94	52	32	3	200 °C (392 °F)
Ghee	99	62	29	4	204 °C (399 °F)
Sunflower oil	100	10	20	66	225 °C (437 °F)
Sunflower oil (high oleic)	100	12	84	4
Vegetable shortening	100	25	41	28	165 °C (329 °F)

Availability

Pre-packaged suet found in supermarkets is dehydrated and mixed with flour to stay stable at room temperature. This means you need to be careful when using it for recipes that need fresh suet, because the flour and fat amounts can change. Most modern recipes now use this packaged suet instead.

You can also find vegetable suet, which is made from refined vegetable oil instead of animal fat.

Cultural and religious restrictions

Main article: Chelev

In Jewish law, eating suet is not allowed. This rule only applies to certain animals used in special rituals, not to wild animals like deer. The famous teacher Maimonides explained in his book The Guide for the Perplexed that one reason for this rule is to help people practice self-control around very tasty but unhealthy foods.