Suet/Tallow: Preparing/Rendering, Storing, Using

[Michael Ruhlman]

It ends up as small pieces of fat in the pastry, soft enough to roll and that melt over the long cooking and give it texture

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This is the key difference in how you cook with the two fats. Suet is always added shredded and not cut in or rubbed in as for shortcrust pastry, nor is the dough rolled and turned like flaky pastry. It is a much more rustic type of pastry and does taste much fattier and more savoury although it is very good in jam roly poly too!

Jack, that pudding looks wonderful.

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don't you render the suet first? there's connective tissue and other stuff, no?

[Corinna Dunne]

It ends up as small pieces of fat in the pastry, soft enough to roll and that melt over the long cooking and give it texture

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This is the key difference in how you cook with the two fats. Suet is always added shredded and not cut in or rubbed in as for shortcrust pastry, nor is the dough rolled and turned like flaky pastry. It is a much more rustic type of pastry and does taste much fattier and more savoury although it is very good in jam roly poly too!

Jack, that pudding looks wonderful.

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don't you render the suet first? there's connective tissue and other stuff, no?

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No, it doesn't need to be rendered. I've just had a look in Delia Smith (an old hand at traditional British cooking) and she says that if you get the suet from the butcher, it needs to be separated out from the skin etc and grated finely. I have never done this and just used the easier option of store bought suet in a packet. Regardless of whether you are making the suet yourself or not, it is just sprinkled in on top of the flour, seasoned, mixed around a bit, before the water is added very gradually and the whole thing is brought together as a dough. It is rolled out slightly more thickly than shortcrust. Delia mentions that it is always made with self raising flour to give it a lift and lighten the final crust. As Jack mentioned, the heat melts the fat as it cooks. Maybe he can chime in with a bit more detail. I'm no expert on this.

[Adam Balic]

The raising agents in self-raising flour are a 19th century addition, I agree that they add extra lightness, but the point of using the suet in the first place is to give a light textured dough. Suet doughs are definately rich, but if they are well made with a gentle hand they should be light.

If puddings are made in a cloth are lighter then those made in a bowl, but it takes skill and practice to make the complicated recipes.

[hwilson41]

What i want to know is where one can get good suet.

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Fifi, the trick is to find a real, honest to God butcher, not one of the make believe wannabes that populate most supermarket meat counters these days. I go down to the Eastern Market in DC to Union Meat Co, and they either have or will get you anything you want in the meat line. And best of all, they're competitive on price. I'm still fiddling around off and on with trying to make real Texas Hot Links, and want them to be all beef, like the ones we ate when I was growing up in Fort Worth (I think). So I decided I needed suet for the fat. Suet didn't seem to exist in any of the regular supermarkets around here, so I went to Union. Sure enough, he said he could get it for me, but I'd have to take the whole chunk (from an Angus kidney). It was 70 cents per pound, and I ended up with a bit over 12 pounds , but that's fine with me because I'll freeze it in 1 pound packs and it will, I'm guessing, keep til the end of time.

I am not afraid of saturated fat. There is emerging evidence that saturated fat isn't all that bad for us. It is the artificially created trans fats that may be a problem.... There is no margarine in my house, only butter. After all, we evolved eating saturated animal fats. A little good beef suet probably never hurt anyone.

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I'm loving this news . I have suspected this for a long time, and there hasn't been a stick of margerine in our house for at least 25 years, but the new info on trans fats is just starting to get widely circulated. Thanks for sharing that.

[fifi]

I have just called around to some of our real butchers and they say they can't get it. I am finding that hard to believe. My next try will be some restauranteur in the area that does British cuisine and see if they have a source.

As to freezing the suet, I have some questions. I freeze lard all the time. Heck, it keeps in the fridge in a jar forever. I do store all of my fats in canning jars (wide mouth for the freezer) so that they don't pick up off flavors. But, lard has been rendered so there is no enzymatic activity, because of the heat, to cause it to go off. If you freeze suet as it comes from the cow, will there be residual enzymatic activity left in the tissue, even assuming that it is stored in a real freezer at 0 degrees F or lower? I really don't know. I do know that seafood fat, like crawfish fat, doesn't keep worth a damn due to enzymatic activity, even at low temperatures. (Typical boiled crawfish, when done right, doesn't get hot enough to inactivate enzymes. Or, so I am told.)

McGee is mute on this subject.

[jsolomon]

Fifi,

I checked froogle.google.com for beef suet.

It appears to be available by mail-order.

If need be, I can get you in touch with some good butchers here in Nebraska, or I have some friends in south Texas (San Angelo area) I can ask for clues to good butchers.

[fifi]

Thanks for that. That is where I was headed next. If I had a good freezer, I would probably just order a whole big chunk. Just a heads up . . . Don't think you can get by with the stuff for the birds (literally) as it may not have been handled with the proper care. I hope someone has some information or experience with long term storage.

[hwilson41]

I have just called around to some of our real butchers and they say they can't get it.  I am finding that hard to believe. My next try will be some restauranteur in the area that does British cuisine and see if they have a source.

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You probably need to find a butcher that deals directly with a slaughterhouse (or a broker for a slaughterhouse) rather than a distributor. I'm virtually certain that's where mine came from. You might also want to indicate that you'll buy however much you have to to get it. The butcher I used warned me that I would have to buy the whole suet from one kidney because that's the smallest amount his source would ship, and that it would be 10 pounds or a bit more.

As to freezing the suet, I have some questions. I freeze lard all the time. Heck, it keeps in the fridge in a jar forever. I do store all of my fats in canning jars (wide mouth for the freezer) so that they don't pick up off flavors. But, lard has been rendered so there is no enzymatic activity, because of the heat, to cause it to go off. If you freeze suet as it comes from the cow, will there be residual enzymatic activity left in the tissue, even assuming that it is stored in a real freezer at 0 degrees F or lower? I really don't know.

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I haven't a clue, but will know in about a month . Of course muscle meat gives you unmistakable indications when it goes off, via the smell, but I'm not sure whether fat would do likewise. McGee hints that freezing might solve the problem, but it's unclear whether he's just talking about muscle, or muscle and fat in general (p 101 in the paperback edition).

[Adam Balic]

A recent dessert using suet. "Sir Robert Walpole's Dumplings" from 18th century Scotland.

Basically, candied citron and orange peel, currants, spices, bread crumbs, eggs and suet, boiled in a cloth for two hours.

It makes a very light pudding.

[jackal10]

mmm...pass the custard!

[Adam Balic]

I used Bird's and flavored it with sweet Malaga.

Jack, the Oxford colleges seem to have a few suet puddings associated with them, have you heard of any that are particular to Cambridge?

For that matter, has anybody eaten an "Oxford Pudding" which is a steamed suet pudding which is filled with; pork, liver, onions, chestnuts and baked beans! Served with boiled potatoes - sounds, eh, filling.

[jackal10]

None current, (or should that be currant) that I know of. Christ's College makes much of its Mulberry tree (sat under by Milton), and serves Mulberry Sorbet.

Trinity serves Trinity Cream, essentially creme brulee

Alan Davidson (and Oxford man) in OCF (an Oxford book) describes the well known College Pudding (flour, suet, breadcrumbs, raisins, currants, candied peel, sugar, egg, milk), and says it dates from 1617 in Cambridge. Trinity Oxford has a richer version, and New College Oxford fries the same mixture as dumplings and serves them with Jam sauce.

Davidson also describes Peterhouse Pudding, which is a suet pudding mix lightened with eggs in pastry tart shell, and Magdalene Pudding, a rich baked sponge pudding flavoured with brandy nutmeg and lemon rind. I have emailed the catering manager at Peterhouse to see if they still serve it. It was not on offer when I dined there last week.

There is King's Pudding and Queens Pudding, but I don't think they are associated with the colleges of those names. Nearby Newmarket budding is essentilly a bread and butter pudding.

Harvard has the Hasty Pudding Theatre, which is quite inedible.

Edited December 6, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[jackal10]

Leek and Bacon Roly Poly

Suet pastry;

8 oz flour

4 oz suet

salt, pepper

1 tsp black treacle

2 tsp baking powder

water to hold together as a soft dough

Pat the dough out into a rough rectangle on a floured cloth.

Spread with bacon, onion, leeks, fried together to soften

Roll up in the cloth, tie and put into a saucepan of water

Boil gently for an hour or so it will swell. You can see why its also called "dead leg"

I did not let it rest enough before turning out, so it rather collapsed.

Serve with good gravy. You can eat this on its own, with a vegetable. We had it as a starch side to roast pork with Brussels sprouts.

[Adam Balic]

Cool, another regional name of this dish was a "Clanger". The Bedfordshire Clanger is savoury at one end and sweet at the other. A one dish meal. Another regional variation is the "Quorn" pudding. And then there was always the option of boiled baby for dessert.

[BarbaraY]

If you ever get access to deer suet, it seems to have an even higher melting point then beef suet. I was given a recipe for a Cloutie dumpling (similar to a light version of a boiled Christmas pudding) from a Stalker's wife that uses this fat and it does give a different character to the pudding.

If you scroll down on this thread you will see a demo I did on suet dumplings.

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I recall, as a child my grandmother loved to get venison for her mincemeat. I think she used the venison suetin it, too.

I have a number of recipes that call for chopped suet in the pastry. Not melted. The best Cornish pasties!

[etalanian]

I used to help my Finnish grandmother make wonderfully light and delicious pasties filled with beef, onions, and potatoes. The suet was always from the kidney, and very finely chopped. She would never buy suet from a grocery store - only from her special butcher. She was very particular about that. Just reading through this thread makes me want to make them for my husband and kids. They will love them.

Thanks for starting this one!

Eileen

[Adam Balic]

If you ever get access to deer suet, it seems to have an even higher melting point then beef suet. I was given a recipe for a Cloutie dumpling (similar to a light version of a boiled Christmas pudding) from a Stalker's wife that uses this fat and it does give a different character to the pudding.

If you scroll down on this thread you will see a demo I did on suet dumplings.

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I recall, as a child my grandmother loved to get venison for her mincemeat. I think she used the venison suetin it, too.

I have a number of recipes that call for chopped suet in the pastry. Not melted. The best Cornish pasties!

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Barbara - do you have a recipe for the venison mince meat? 'tis the season and so on.

[Adam Balic]

Another traditional English pudding, "Burnley Pie" from Lancashire. This area is particularly rich in regional recipes and there are quite a few that use dried figs like this pudding (for instance "Fag Pie"). It is very similar in flavour to 'Sticky Date pudding'.

[Pan]

That looks fantastic, Adam! Could you post or link a recipe for others who might want to try making this? (Parenthetically, it doesn't seem that having a baby has slowed down your cooking much, and congratulations!)

[Adam Balic]

Actually, having a baby has almost brought my cooking to a complete stop (although, strangely it has the opposite effect on weight gain).

Burnley Pie

8 oz dried figs (rehydrated overnight)

2 eggs

4 oz suet

4 oz brown sugar

6 oz breadcrumbs

1 large tablespoon syrup

milk

Butter a basin very well. Mix all ingredients and added milk until a soft dropping consitency is reached. Add to basin and tie top with pleated, buttered foil. Boil for 2.5 hours. Serve with custard.

It would be good with the addition of a pinch ginger, salt and mabe walnuts or pecans.

[Adam Balic]

Not sure it this should go here as it doesn't contain suet, but all the British puddings might as well be kept together in one place.

From an English cookbook of 1817. This is a recipe for an apple tart. It is basically apple puree , mixed with crushed naples biscuits, eggs and cream. As the mixture souffles, the solution at the time was to put a puff pasty collar around the dish. As the mixture expanded, so did the container. At a slightly earlier date puff pastry would have been laid under the mixture as well. Very light and delicate. There are many variations on this theme (orange and lemon being very popular). Odd that they fell out of favour, and the more sturdy suet boiled puddings marched on.

[Jensen]

Adam,

How does the apple tart keep? Could it be served the next day or does it go soggy/flat/otherwise not palatable?

Also, could you provide quantities for the ingredients? (Please and thank you!)

[Jensen]

In an effort to provide a fair exchange for Adam's apple tart recipe, I offer the following. This is a recipe from my great-grandmother (which would make it, at the latest, from 19th century England) and, although it was titled "Veal Dressing" by her, we always used it to stuff the turkey at Christmas.

So, as Great-Granny (or maybe her daughter) wrote it out...

Veal Dressing

for 8-10 lb. chicken or turkey

3 c. crumbs

1 c. chopped parsley

1 T. poultry spice

1 c. suet

1 egg

salt

juice of 2 lemons

(It uses fresh breadcrumbs and fresh parsley.)

[Adam Balic]

Adam,

How does the apple tart keep? Could it be served the next day or does it go soggy/flat/otherwise not palatable?

Also, could you provide quantities for the ingredients? (Please and thank you!)

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I ate some last night that had been stored in the fridge and it was fine. The texture of the pudding is sort of light, moist and cakey with out being wet.

The recipe as stated uses the pulp of four large apples (roasted in the oven to avoid excess liquid), 1/4 pound of Naples biscuits (sponge fingers (savoiardi)), 10 eggs, 1 pint of cream and nutmeg. pinch of salt.

The apple pulp is mixed with the finely crushed biscuits and nutmeg, to this is added the cream and 7 whole eggs and three yolks. The remaining whites are whipped and folded into the mixture,which is then baked.

I actually used 8 eggs and substituted some of the cream for milk as I misread the recipe and didn't buy enough cream. It is important to have an apple with good strong flavour and some acid. I used Bramley's and Cox's, but something like a Gravenstein would be very good.

[Jensen]

Thank you so much for the details!