What Is Suet and How Can I Use It?

Here's everything worth knowing about suet and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 51 recipes to cook tonight.

Nutrition

Food group

Suet is a member of the Beef Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

How much does suet weigh?

Related

Beef Products

Recipes using suet

There are 51 recipes that contain this ingredient.

Buttermilk Christmas Pudding

Buttermilk Christmas pudding: a warmly spiced, molasses-dark steamed pudding studded with raisins and made tender by buttermilk and suet. The traditional British holiday dessert, served with brandy sauce or custard.

Mincemeat (Real Meat) #2

Traditional mincemeat with real beef and suet, the way it was made for centuries before the meatless version took over. Currants, raisins, apples, brandy, and warming spices simmer into a deeply flavored pie filling. Yields 80 servings.

Baked Chili

Hearty ground beef chili with kidney beans and tomatoes baked under a golden cornmeal crust. A satisfying one-dish meal that feeds six with bold, homestyle flavor.

Awesome Holiday Plum Pudding

Traditional British Christmas plum pudding: a dense steamed pudding rich with suet, dried fruit, candied orange, and brandy. Made weeks ahead to mellow, then reheated and flamed for the holiday table.

Nana Moon's Christmas Pudding

Nana Moon's traditional Christmas pudding: brandy-soaked dried fruit, suet and breadcrumbs steamed for hours into a dark, rich pudding, flamed with brandy and served with brandy butter.

My Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding steams grated carrot and potato with raisins, currants, suet, and warm spice blend into a moist holiday dessert. Serve with brown sugar sauce or custard.

Delicious Holiday Mince Pie with Beef

Holiday mincemeat with chopped beef, suet, apples, sour cherries, dried fruit, and broken nuts simmered slowly with brandy and warming spices. A massive 48-serving batch for Christmas baking and gift-giving.

Steak & Sausage Pudding

A traditional British steamed pudding filled with beef shin, sausage meat balls, and onion rings in a Marmite-enriched gravy, all wrapped in a suet pastry crust. Proper comfort food, steamed low and slow.

Green Tomato Minced Meat

Green tomato mincemeat made from scratch with suet, apples, raisins, citron, and warm spices. A traditional preserve for holiday pies, sealed with a splash of brandy.

Fruit Pudding

Old-fashioned steamed fruit pudding with raisins, suet, molasses, and warm spices. A Pennsylvania-style dessert steamed for 3 hours and served with brown sugar sauce.

Indian Pudding

Warm cornmeal pudding sweetened with molasses and brown sugar, spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. This traditional New England dessert bakes up creamy with a characteristic whey center, perfect with cold cream.

Original San Antone Chili

Original San Antone chili is authentic 19th-century Texas chili con carne: cubed beef and pork seared in suet, simmered in beef stock with ancho chile puree, garlic, and cumin. No beans, no tomato, all meat and chile.

Clootie Dumpling

A traditional Scottish clootie dumpling made with suet, currants, sultanas, and cinnamon, wrapped in a floured cloth and simmered for two hours. Serve warm with custard sauce for a proper British pudding.

Texas Red

Six pounds of cubed beef browned in suet, simmered in beef stock with a full cup of chili powder and crushed cumin seeds, thickened with masa harina. No tomatoes. No beans. This is Texas Red in its purest form.

Traditional Haggis

Traditional Scottish haggis made the authentic way, with sheep's pluck and mutton, toasted oatmeal, suet, and onion packed into a stomach bag and simmered for hours. The real-deal recipe for a proper Burns Supper.

The Dreaded Haggis

Traditional Scottish haggis from scratch, with toasted oatmeal, sheep heart and liver, suet, and warm spices packed into a stomach casing. The Burns Night centerpiece, served with neeps, tatties, and a nip of whisky.

Cranberry Pudding

Traditional steamed cranberry pudding with suet, breadcrumbs and brown sugar. Dense, moist old-fashioned holiday dessert steamed for 2 hours.

Boiled Plumb Pudding

Traditional British boiled plum pudding wrapped in muslin and simmered for 5 hours. Loaded with suet, currants, raisins, and warm spices, then doused in rum. Serves 8.

Rich Venison & Mushroom Stew

Rich venison and mushroom stew braises marinated game low and slow into a dark, glossy gravy, then crowns it with crisp lemon-parsley forcemeat balls. A deeply savory, make-ahead wild-game casserole.

Grandma's Mince Meat

Old-fashioned mince meat with calf tongue, suet, dried fruit, candied citrus, brandy and whiskey. The traditional pie filling, aged in a crock for at least 7 weeks for deep holiday flavor.

Venison Sausage

Homemade venison sausage with suet, sage, garlic, and red pepper, stuffed into casings and smoked for 28 to 30 hours. A hunter's guide to making smoked deer sausage.

Steamed Cranberry Pudding

Steamed cranberry pudding, a brighter take on Christmas pudding: tart cranberries, walnuts, and apricots in a suet batter, steamed moist and served warm with caramel or hard sauce. A festive holiday dessert.

Pan Haggis

Pan haggis with liver, toasted pinhead oatmeal, suet, and onions steamed in a pudding basin for 3 hours. A traditional Scottish dish made without a stomach casing.

Margo Knudson's Chili

Margo Knudson's Chili: a no-bean Texas-style chili with 3 lbs of cubed beef, three chili powders including Gebhardt's and New Mexico, sausage, and an oregano tea steeped into the broth.

Minced Meat for Pies

Fermented mincemeat made with venison or beef tongue, suet, apples, dried fruit, red wine, cider, and brandy. A six-to-eight-week crock cure transforms the ingredients into the deep, boozy filling of old hunting cabin Christmas pies.

All 51 recipes