britishfood

Recently chatting to an American friend, I remarked how my mother, on a recent visit, had brought me three boxes of suet and how happy I was that my pantry was fully stocked once more. Giving me an odd glance, she pointed to the suet cakes she hangs in her garden for the birds and asked what was so different about English suet? She was not expecting my reply: that it wasn’t for the birds, it was for me! That’s right, what is relegated to being wild bird food here in Kentucky is actually a wonderfully useful ingredient that I miss being able to buy.

Let’s start with the basics. Suet is congealed animal fat, more specifically beef or mutton fat and yes, that does mean that it is a saturated fat. (For vegetarians, there is now a non-animal suet available, made with palm oil and rice flour). Yet even given my health-conscious, fat-eschewing ways, I love suet because it is so useful and truly makes a difference in recipes. What would steak and kidney pudding be without a suet-pastry crust?

The first mention of suet was in a cookbook dating from 1617. It was the key ingredient in a dish known as “Cambridge Pudding” which also contained dates, currants, sugar, and eggs. Through most of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, a boiled pudding consisting of suet mixed with spices and spinach juice was a popular dish. Although I shudder at the thought of such a “Green Pudding”, I remain forever thankful that cooks soon began to make a suet crust as an outer shell, to be stuffed with fruits or meats. Thus was born the steak and kidney pudding which is so dear to my own heart and stomach.

Today, more than 2,300 tons of suet are sold in Great Britain everyday! That’s over one million dumplings. Yet suet can be used for much more than dumplings or my beloved steak and kidney pudding. Use it in steamed jam roly poly, Eccles cakes, or Spotted Dick, or perhaps in something less traditional, such as caramel squares, goat cheese cobbler, or chili tostadas. Some excellent recipe ideas can be found at www.atora.co.uk, Atora being Britain’s best known suet manufacturer.

Come back tomorrow for a recipe using suet.

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