Holiday Baking #21

Dubuque Iowa dated 1900 through 1957

Fruit Cake                                  

Mock Mince Pie                       

Fairbanks Alaska from the early 1900’s

Green Tomato Mincemeat       

Cranberry Pie                            

Suet – It is the hard, raw fat from beef or mutton found around the kidneys and loins.  The high smoke point and fast melting temperature makes it perfect for deep frying and pastry making.  After rendering into tallow, it is used in cooking and baking such things as the traditional English Christmas pudding.  The long process of rendering it down to tallow, involves melting and simmering several times, cooling it down all to refine the suet to a usable state.  Suet requires refrigeration if it to be stored for any length of time. 

Do not confuse suet with all fat from the animals it can only be found around the heart and kidneys of cattle and sheep.  Nor should it be confused with drippings, which is the melted fats in the pan when cooking the meat. 

Pre-packaged suet that can be found today in the markets is mixed with flour and dehydrated to make it stable at room temperature. Some care is needed to use this for the old recipes, the proportions of flour to fat will alter the stated recipe.  Fresh suet can be bought in markets and must be coarsely grated to use; then must be refrigerated prior to use and used within a few days of buying it. 

Visit my ebay store to find some great kitchen utensils and collectables to go along with these vintage and antique recipes.

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