Hi! I rendered several pounds of suet last year using an older crockpot, where it had only two settings: low and high. And low was *still* too hot, and set the suet to lightly bubbling. At first, that didn't seem to be a problem? It rendered quickly and completely, and the graves were tiny. However, after I left mom's place, I got a call from my sister, demanding to know WHAT HAD I DONE?!? There was suet...*everywhere!* On the counter tops, on the cabinets, on the *windows!* I thought I'd cleaned up everything, but the suet had come out in the steam and settled on everything! That's when we discovered: SUET IS INDESTRUCTIBLE! No modern spray cleaner can cut it! The only thing that works is straight ammonia mixed with dish soap. It's a nasty beast to clean up, so render it in your garage, or better yet, outside. And for the love of all that is holy, do NOT dump it down the drain! I got several large blocks of very pure suet, which I still have in the freezer, still fresh and good. I even made plum pudding for Thanksgiving, and it was awesome. I was also treated to the pain of my sister and mother when I had to clean the cooking utensils and processing equipment! Lord what a mess! Fortunately I have a gasmask, so using straight ammonia, I was able to get it done. Thanks for the awesome videos!

My 84 year old Mum still renders her own suet. She just cuts it into chunks small enough to go through her hand cranked mincer, then renders it in a slow cooker and finally just filters it through several layers of muslin into small loaf tins.

Tallow from suet was used as a metal lubricant. A friend had to disassemble a metal lighthouse frame that had been exposed to salt water for over a century. He was prepared to do battle, but the bolts came apart easily. The secret? All bolts and nuts had been coated with a mix of tallow and white lead, and were well preserved after over a century of ocean splashing.

I've rendered about 100 lbs of suet over the past few weeks, and there are definitely a few things to keep in mind when preparing suet into tallow in larger batches. 1) Drop cloth. You never knew how slippery the floors could be until you spilled a waxy oil onto them, but here they are. Get a drop-cloth for the floor where you are working. It's best not to step on the cloth, however, as it will slip even more than the tallow. 2) Cut it into small cubes. You can grind it as well, but this is best done in an electric grinder. Don't use a blender unless you add a bit of melted tallow inside in a 50/50 mix. 3) Render in the oven if preparing a large batch. Low and slow is key. I recommend 200 - 250 F if you are interested in getting some good suet. This step takes a while, so be ready for that. Cook with water and salt. 4) Get a fire extinguisher. Suet doesn't burn easily (flash point 500 degrees F) but when it does, it poofs into flame very soon after it starts smoking. Don't let it get to this point, ever, or you are going to have a grease fire. It's not fun when your grease fire involves a massive batch of tallow! Luckily, that has never happened to me, but it is best to watch. 5) Get some food-safe buckets. The buckets are key here! This lets you put the tallow somewhere you can store it if you wish to refine it later on.

Thank you so much for this information. We live in Scotland and since the pandemic started, we completely changed our life. We grow our fruit, vegetables, herbs, we started beekeeping, breed anrld raise chickens, ducks, Guinea fowls. We butcher our own animals as well as eat and sell their delicious eggs. My husband started hunting for deer with a farmer friend (deer is really over populated here, farmers keep their numbers low as there are no more wolfs in the country). We know a few farmers and we manage to get adult sheep whenever we need it. So far I used all the fat and suet together, chopped them into cubes and heated them in a large stock pot to get all the fat out and we ate the solid just like people used to eat pork crackling. Just salt it and eat it with bread or on it's own. If you have too many, you can grind it down and make sandwich paste with it, delicious. Also you can use it to make scones with it, yumm. At the moment we almost finished the very last jar of mutton fat/lard, I use it for cooking, frying, everything tastes better with it The next sheep is going to be butchered soon and I will definitely give a go with the old fashioned suet making. Finally we can make our Plum Pudding with proper suet. This Christmas we made it with raw butter. We are continually learning from your channel, so grateful for every one of your videos and the hard work of all the staff.

This is, by all accounts, the most informative video about suet! I have a great respect for suet that I did not have before. Thankz

Knowledgeable, entertaining and very much appreciated. Thanks!

Your attention to detail is spectacular. Gratitude.

This is amazing. I actually never would've thought this was so forgotten in the west. My 68 year old grandma still makes her own suet. :) Nobody will ever bake as good as she does.

I dont know what planet or time this guy came from but he's awesome!

My great-grandmother, born in the 1800s, always did this at hog-killin' time. She'd use it to make the soaps that they used throughout the year for everything from scrubbing floors to washing babies. My grandmother, (who died at 94, like her mother), said she missed her mother's bath soap, that left her hair so soft and smelling of the herbs her mother infused into it. It's sad that, years later, I'm left trying to reconstruct the recipes and methods my family used, in an attempt to recreate some of the wonderful things that they made.

This is very interesting! I make homemade suet cakes for the birds because I'm an avid bird watcher. I used to be able to find suet out in some grocery stores but since moving to another state, I usually have to ask the meat department for it. The method I use is to chop the suet up fine and render it in an electric skillet outside. Then filter it through cheese cloth and add bird seed, peanut butter, chopped nuts, dried bits of fruits and other things depending on what kinds of birds I'm making it for at that particular time. Then I spoon it into one of those bread shaped sandwich containers and let it cool before putting it into a wire suet feeder. The birds love it!

Incredible channel. James pulls off the Ebenezer Scrooge hats like no body else on youtube.

I can listen to this guy talk about this stuff all day. Very relaxing and informative.

I stumbled on these videos a few days ago and I'm motoring my way through them all at light speed. I'm not a reenactor but LOVE traditional cooking, foods and cooking methods. You folks have me considering building a wood-fired oven, durn you, lol. I nearly didn't watch this one because I have rendered my own tallow for many years, first for just homemade soap and eventually when I learned it was a lot more healthy than the canola oil that I have evicted from my kitchen, a primary cooking fat. But I am a sucker for more ideas and knew you would go 18th century on it. I admit I don't clean as much fascia out as possible. I get rid of meat and blood vessels and run the remainder through my meat grinder to break it up. I started by slow on the stove, switched to slow in the oven and now recently the slow cooker. And now I add a little water.Yes the last sounds crazy or at least I thought so but it completely evaporates over the long cooking time and keeps the connective tissue from browning in the early stages which adds odor and flavor. One of the things I use my tallow (rendered suet) for is body and face salve so I do not want any odor in it. And if you are wondering it works fantastic mixed with some avocado oil to get a softer consistency. I get lots of compliments on my complexion and I'm a middle-aged woman. Again LOVE your videos. I've sent a link to one to a friend in Lafayette Indiana who does reenacting festivals with his whole family. I can't wait to find out if he already knows about you.

Watching these videos gives one a greater appreciation for how our fore-fathers lived. Never would have thought something as simple as kidney fat was so important. They used it for almost everything.

6:55 "If you're working in a modern..*sighs*.. kitchen..." 😂

Just fascinating.. Thank you for bringing Jas. Townsend for bringing this forgotten chapter of culinary history alive.

Wow! Foodstuffs, household and industrial applications?!? What couldn't you use this for? Maybe someone should try some suet in a cold fusion experiment! lol! This series is amazing!

It's great for making pemmican. I turn suet into tallow all the time. Down south we call the remaining pieces cracklin'. It's more common when making lard from pig fat, but either way, I use the cracklin' in my cornbread and it is awesome. Great video once again. I love these videos.

This is the best channel! Why doesn't KZfaq tell me these great history channels exist? Watching this is like watching what I wished the history channel had evolved into, instead of, well, whatever it is.

Ya know, if one had to PAY for this teaching....well, I for one could not afford it!! You are a saint for the wealth of what we learn from you!!

this channel is my new favorite

Townsends, your entire channel is just awesome. You have done us all a great service by sharing and preserving this knowledge. Thank you and keep it up.

After viewing that recent sausage recipe, this suet's a great product to use, and I'm betting that along with lard, instead of being hazardous to our health, its all the contrary! Thumbs up Jon and thanks for sharin'! :)

i/m english, and i live in vietnam where i can't buy english food, and i actually do do this myself, i go back what's called leaf suet and render it down myself so i can make pies and puddings, good stuff. thanks for posting these videos, love your channel

This video was so wonderfully informative, entertaining and instructive and a valuable resource for homes cooks looking to learn new techniques. I went straight to the chip shop and bought a Pukka pie after watching it.

I stumbled across your channel and I am just loving it! I am a Registered Dietitian and I also a lover of history, particularly early American history. I learn something new from each of your videos and I am enjoying watching them during the Covid-19 quarantine. Thank you and keep the videos coming!

Here in Austria greaves are used as a filling for dumplings. Quite common really. "Grammelknödel" with Sauerkraut...

Thank God for this guy, I've learned more American history from him and his channel than all of my public education. I wish we had the internet in my youth, I would have learned a lot more necessary skills and less politically motivated nonsense.

I render and keep a bit of tallow for leather---after seeing this video I've been thinking about trying it in food. Last night, while making tortillas, I ran out of lard. For the balance of the lard I cut in a 50/50 mix of suit and olive oil and it worked well. This morning I nuked and then stir-fried some frozen fries in a tsp of tallow and they were amazingly crispy and way easier than deep-fry or even baking!

It sure gives me even more respect for my great-great-great grandmother & all the work she must've had to do to feed her family & care for them. Oh, & the Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cookbook has a recipe for Suet Pudding. I make it for our Christmas dessert. 'Tis Delicious indeed.

When you render suet you get a lot of the really healthy properties that things like chondroitin sulfate give. Suet for joint health!

Old '80s 18thc reenactor... now an historical interpreter of that era and early 19thc. Your videos are amazingly well done & the info is deep & well researched. You've probably inspired hundreds to consider adding this "hobby" to their family life and for that... Huzzah!

I just love your videos, Thank you love living history!

When I was young, I saw suet in the meat section of grocery stores. Now it's not anywhere not even in butcher shops.

As a Brit, steamed suet pudding was a part of growing up in the 50's and 60's. From savoury steak and kidney, to sweet treacle or jam puddings... always tasty and really welcome. I don't know if it's still popular these days having moved to the colonies 30+ years ago, but I have on occasion made a sweet one using fresh suet, with raisins and jam,served with hot custard, my colonial cousins thoroughly approved

I love learning new things about how food was prepared and preserved before Refrigeration . God bless the work you guys are doing

The word suet comes from french, it basically means sweat in 18-19th century french. It has the same etymological root (sudare in latin) as the words sweat - suer - sueur (in english and french).

Thank you! I'm right now rendering suet in a slow cooker... haven't "baked" with suet in thirty years or more. THANK YOU!!!

Fascinating to learn about this. Our society just doesn't use foods like this anymore.

We had a process to purify rendered suet for long term storage. ~ Once rendered, put in a pot w/ with clean water. Heat, once melted simmer gently whisking well. ~ Cool slowly until fat settles on top ~ Separate fat, put in a clean pot, heat on low for a good few hours - Temp. was ~200^F or less - This got rid of any trapped water, plus impurities formed on the surface and bottom ~ Skim the surface, strain hot through paper filter We used the same process with duck fat often, and I think lard once. The chef I worked for then said it was standard traditional procedure in France. I found a similar process described in "The Epicurean from 1893

I love the way good old Atora is seen as strange and foreign.

I just want to say that I dabble in writing semi-historical or fantastic settings. These videos have been tremendously helpful for research. Thank you so much! You are very proud of your craft and you have every reason to be.

OK, I'm from Scotland - If a recipe calls for suet then find suet. Substitutes suck. All the puddings and dumplings DO NOT WORK WITH FROZEN LARD. All steamed dumplings suet or savory WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT SUET. This video is fantastic. BTW Aurora is great, look to the recipes from the 50 or 60's for the equivalent weaight of the industrialised product.

My grandmother used to mention suet, particularly in regards to making pies and yorkshire pudding. Wonderful to understand what she was speaking of, and quite enjoyed the ship's bell ring when Jon cheerfully knocked on the little cast iron pot.

Really enjoy your program. I noticed that the suet you're using is rather yellow. I believe this is because you may be using grain fed beef suet. Grass fed beef in general is very different, the fats and the suet is much more white. The properties are different and the flavor is more complex. In the 18th century, they had no grain finished meat to speak of, as grains were rarely wasted as animal feeds. Perhaps you could try grass fed beef suet. I raise Lowline Angus 100% grass fed beef in Hinesburg, Vermont and I happen to have some suet in my freezer all vacuum sealed and ready to go. If you're interested I could send you some to experiment with. The results would be more authentic and I'd love to hear your critic on the comparison between grain finished and grass finished suet/tallow. Have you done a show on making hide glue yet? One of the by product of rendering suet and bones is a very useful scum that collects on the top of the liquid as it renders down. This is used to make a very useful and durable glue called 'hide glue'.

Thank you for all of your videos Mr. Townsend. Really great educational material.

suet can be found in every supermarket in the uk and the brand you showed(ATORA) also make a vegetarian substitute for suet

The more of these videos I watch the better I appreciate the detailed information and production quality.

I've always feared suet a little bit, when I was young my mam made dumplings with off suet and I've been to scared to cook with it since😂

This channel should be shown to every high school student in America.

I use that atora suet to make dumplings for beef stew. They’re delicious and tender and fluffy

I love this. Thanks so much for preserving the secrets of the past and passing them on to us. This is all invaluable information to people.

Lovely, keep our cultural food going strong.

Just found this channel. Just want to say, I am absolutely enthralled by this era of cooking and overall way of life. This channel has been very informative, educational, and enjoyable to watch. Thank you.

Fascinating. I love the outfits and the history.

Well, this channel is fantastic. Here, I found many of the ways my grandparents used in the countryside kitchen to make things. I thank you all for your efforts. Warmest Greetings from Greenland (I am from an Italian-Irish family). Cheers!

This was very informative. I break down beef kidneys for my dogs and always see the fatty part inside of it. I did not know that was suet.

God bless you for making this educational video.

Great video, thank you. I was so confused at first when you were explaining carefully what suet is and how butchers might not know or give you the wrong thing. In the UK suet is a common ingredient, as can be seen by the Atora packet. In fact there is also a vegetarian version that is made of hydrogenated fats, so veggies don't have to miss out. I had no idea Americans don't use it for anything! Anyway, I have a couple of questions in anyone can help. For living history purposes what kind of textile would be used to strain the rendered suet? Linen? Like scraps from worn out clothes or something? Secondly, in 17th century Britain ordinary people had no access to paper, so how might they have preserved their block of suet? Thank you.

One of the very best. Thanks for teaching me about my family's day to day life over the generations.

You could, if you can check the pot every now and then, speed up the process by adding a bit of water. This way the suet renders at 100 degrees C until the water evaporates, then you can take it off the heat before the temperature goes right up. There may be a bit of splatter near the end, but that serves as a warning that your suet is almost done.

Haven’t seen your videos pop up on my “trending” in a few months!!! Missed it Always learn something new and interesting watching these videos. Thanks

I find it interesting that Americans can’t get suet easily like we can here in England. How can you exist without the main ingredient for dumplings, jam roly poly and other suet puddings!? Thanks Tesco for Atora! 😍

The fact this exists, is amazing. Thanks

what a charismatic man :)

The most wonderful channel I have found in years. This video has been one of the most interesting yet! Started with season 1 and working my way through!

Subscribed. Love this stuff and this presenter. Cheers!

Loved learning about suet and how it's done. Thank you!

Love the videos. They're all great! You mentioned that the rendered suet wrapped in paper and linen will last for several months. Is that >refrigerated< or at room temperature?

my mom told me when she was a little girl and lived on the family ranch, when they rendered suet they would put it on home made screens set it in the oven with a very low fire over a pan and let it drip until it was rendered then store the fat an used the bits left over to flavor their veggies like green beans instead of using bacon. they did it with the pork and the beef. This is very good information to share not a lot know how to do this. I've bought suet to render at the meat market and did the same as my mom told me only i used modern oven instead of the old wood cook stove they used when she was young. just set on warm setting and let it do it's own thing. it's hard to get these days so haven't done it in a while. thanks for sharing.

In Wisc. They have it in The freezer section. Birds love it.

I wish you had been my history teacher, I just lock onto your voice and information effortlessly. Natural born teacher you are.

I love this channel

we got back at our a traditional butcher, and as I ordered calf kidneys I got them in suet... I know from the cookbook of my grandma what it was and thanks to your videos and homepage we are making suet today. Thank you so much for all this!

Interesting! I've seen grated suet listed as an ingredient and wondered to myself how anyone could grate something as soft as shortening. It's because real suet isn't soft!

I really appreciate you showing so many examples. I know that took a little bit of work to demonstrate the different kinds of beef fat and all that.

Hi Jon, love your videos. Couple of quick questions: 1) If you're going to just strain out the connective tissue anyway, what's the point of cleaning out the connective tissue when you are preparing the suet? 2) Do you know how much of the rendered fat you get from the suet? I was going to buy some suet and try rendering it but didn't want to end up with too much or too little. Thanks!

This was so interesting . My grandmother was British and she used to make a wonderful dish called Spotted Dick, also called Suet Pudding. We loved it the next day when she would slice it and then pour Birdseye custard over it! I always wondered where the suet came from. I went to a butcher to get some and just as you said, they gave me the muscle fat. So now I will be able to ask for the proper fat in order to make my grans wonderful pudding! Thank you!!

thankyou mr townsend

super interesting video to watch, especially after seeing so many of mrs. crocombe's recipes over on english heritage!!

Back in the 1970s, I wore a leisure suet.

simply fascinating! you have no idea how many questions your channel has answered for me. Can't stop watching!

That opening song might as well be the official Jas. Townsend and Son theme song.

Always makes my day seeing your videos! If they taught history like this in school I would of loved it. So very infomational and educational.. Love your teaching style.

In a different video about pemmican you said in some cases it could last 10+ years because of the suet. In this video you said it will last months. Is there another method of storing it to get a longer shelf life? Maybe that was in colder climates?

If you BBQ briskets, there are a few chunks of suet-like fat in the brisket. Not the layer of fat over the brisket, but some largish chunks of VERY HARD fat. I cut it, render it, use the cracklings spread on bread while they are hot or sprinkled like a garnish on thngs, and the tallow to saute onions or other things for beef stew, It has an intense beefy flavor.

Now suet is pretty much non-existent in America

OMG, I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL! I was planning to sleep early tonight, but I think I'll binge-watch the videos on your channel first. Sweet 18th century dreams to me later. 😂

your channel rocks

Actually this is one of the Most Informative Videos I've seen Directly connecting one use of a Product with that of another but I Blame it on Poor Phone service.

In the video you said suet can be stored for a few months if done properly. How can the suet when used inmaking pemmican can it last for such a long time?

I think that this channel is the first place I have even heard of suet.

I would love to try this but I have a question.. When you make candles out of this suet, will they go bad in time? And if they do, what would happen to them? This is one of my favorite channels on youtube by the way, thanks for the content!

Incredible video James. Keeping the past alive is insuring survival in the future.

If I vacuum pack the suet and keep it in the freezer, does it keep longer? (does vacuum packing do anything in terms of preventing the suet from going rancid?)

Thank you for this amazing video! I am starting to use beef tallow from kidney fat with some essential oils for face cream and body butter. I use just normal rendered beef fat for suet cakes for my birds. They LOVE IT!

Anyone got any ideas for the leftover stuff after separating the suet from the tissue things?

Is it weird that I've watched this more than twice? Anyway, I really enjoy your channel. Thanks for your work.