Can beef suet be substituted for pig lard?

[newmochick]

I am a novice with a capital N on my forehead when it comes to this stuff so for all the food experts - can I use beef suet to make pie crusts instead of pig lard. Bought a side of beef and asked for the fat to try cooking with it.

Thank you for all your help.

Kathryn

 

[The Vail Benton's]

You might find this link to be interesting:

http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/07/09/how-to-render-lard-tallow/

 

[newmochick]

Thanks Vail, it was very helpful until I was reading the comments - the possiblity of lead in crockpot glazes, especially Rivals. Of course I have been using a Rival for ages. Guess I need to start another thread about whether anyone knows anything about this???

 

[The Vail Benton's]

I hadn't seen the post about lead in the glaze in crockpots... interesting! So, I did some reasearch and found this link:

http://www.dld123.com/q&a/index.php?cid=2212

an excerpt from the comments:

"Target and Amazon carry an Elite Gourmet tempered glass crock pot.

COMMENT FROM DEBRA: This is pretty cool! It's entirely transparent so you can see the food cooking too.
Elite Gourmet 3.5 Quart Transparent Slow Cooker"

 

[freemotion]

Be sure to separate the suet from the fat trim. The suet is the flaky fat and will render into the finest tallow. Store it in the freezer and it will keep a long time, especially in canning jars, which will keep it from picking up flavors from other foods. Render the regular fat in another batch, as this will not be as high quality, and if you have lots of it, you can make great soap with it, if you have too much to cook with.

You can also make your own suet cakes if you like to feed the birds....I use rendered beef fat, the top quality shell-free bird seed, and a generous amount of cheap dollar store cayenne powder to keep the squirrels off it. I mix enough seed into the fat to make a thick oatmeal consistancy, then pour it into loaf or cake pans and let it harden, then cut it into a size to fit my suet feeder and store it in ziplocs in the freezer.

If you have chickens, be sure to give the icky stuff that is left over in the pan and the stuff you strain out to them. They love it, and need fat to make those lovely egg yolks.

I envy you all that lovely fat!

 

[newmochick]

Thanks free for the info. If I still lived in MA, I would have shared!

 

[freemotion]

Thanks for the thought...

Hey, who lives in MA or CT and has extra beef fat or pork fat?