Suet is the raw, hard fat of beef, lamb or mutton found around the loins and kidneys.
Suet has a melting point of between 45 and 50 °C (113 and 122 °F) and congelation between 37 and 40 °C (99 and 104 °F). Its high smoke point makes it ideal for deep frying and pastry production.
The primary use of suet is to make tallow, although it is also used as an ingredient in cooking, especially in traditional baked puddings, such as British Christmas pudding. Suet is made into tallow in a process called rendering, which involves melting fats and extended simmering, followed by straining, then cooling. The entire process is then usually repeated to refine the product.
The word suet /ˈs(j)uːɪt/ is derived from Anglo-Norman siuet, suet, from Old French sieu, seu, from Latin sēbum ('tallow', 'grease', 'hard animal fat'). [1] Sebum is from the Proto-Indo-European root *seyb- ('pour out, trickle'), so it shares a root with sap and soap . [2] [3]
In the 17th century economy of the Viceroyalty of Peru, Chile's husbandry and agriculture based economy had a peripheral role exporting mainly suet, jerky and leather to the other provinces of the viceroyalty. The importance of this trade led Chilean historian Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna to label the 17th century the century of suet (Spanish: siglo del sebo). [4]
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Energy | 3,573 kJ (854 kcal) | ||||||||||
0 g | |||||||||||
94 g | |||||||||||
Saturated | 52 g | ||||||||||
Monounsaturated | 32 g | ||||||||||
Polyunsaturated | 3 g | ||||||||||
1.50 g | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Other constituents | Quantity | ||||||||||
Cholesterol | 68 mg | ||||||||||
Selenium | 0.2 mcg | ||||||||||
Fat percentage can vary. | |||||||||||
†Percentages estimated using US recommendations for adults, [5] except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies. [6] |
Suet is found in several traditional British dishes. Suet pastry is soft in contrast to the crispness of shortcrust pastry, which makes it ideal for certain sweet and savoury dishes. Suet is most widely used in sweet British baked puddings, such as jam roly-poly and spotted dick. Savoury dishes include dumplings, which are made using a mixture of suet, flour and water rolled into balls that are added to stews during the final twenty minutes or so of cooking. In the savoury dish steak and kidney pie or steak and kidney pudding, a bowl is lined with a suet pastry, the meat is placed inside and a lid of suet pastry tightly seals the meat. The pudding is then steamed for approximately four hours before serving. Suet is also an ingredient of traditional mincemeat, which is also referred to as 'fruit mince'.
As it is the fat from around the kidneys, the connective tissue, blood and other non-fat content must be removed. It then must be coarsely grated. It must be refrigerated prior to use and used within a few days of purchase, similar to raw meat.
Due to its high energy content, cold weather explorers use suet to supplement the high daily energy requirement needed to travel in such climates. Typically the energy requirement is around 5,000–6,000 Cal per day for sledge hauling or dog-sled travelling. [7] Suet is added to food rations to increase the fat content and help meet this high energy requirement.
Type of fat | Total fat (g) | Saturated fat (g) | Monounsaturated fat (g) | Polyunsaturated fat (g) | Smoke point |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Butter [8] | 81 | 51 | 21 | 3 | 150 °C (302 °F) [9] |
Canola oil [10] | 100 | 6–7 | 62–64 | 24–26 | 205 °C (401 °F) [11] [12] |
Coconut oil [13] | 99 | 83 | 6 | 2 | 177 °C (351 °F) |
Corn oil [14] | 100 | 13–14 | 27–29 | 52–54 | 230 °C (446 °F) [9] |
Lard [15] | 100 | 39 | 45 | 11 | 190 °C (374 °F) [9] |
Peanut oil [16] | 100 | 16 | 57 | 20 | 225 °C (437 °F) [9] |
Olive oil [17] | 100 | 13–19 | 59–74 | 6–16 | 190 °C (374 °F) [9] |
Rice bran oil | 100 | 25 | 38 | 37 | 250 °C (482 °F) [18] |
Soybean oil [19] | 100 | 15 | 22 | 57–58 | 257 °C (495 °F) [9] |
Suet [20] | 94 | 52 | 32 | 3 | 200 °C (392 °F) |
Ghee [21] | 99 | 62 | 29 | 4 | 204 °C (399 °F) |
Sunflower oil [22] | 100 | 10 | 20 | 66 | 225 °C (437 °F) [9] |
Sunflower oil (high oleic) | 100 | 12 | 84 [11] | 4 [11] | |
Vegetable shortening [23] | 100 | 25 | 41 | 28 | 165 °C (329 °F) [9] |
Pre-packaged suet sold in supermarkets is dehydrated suet. It is mixed with flour to make it stable at room temperature, requiring some care when using it for recipes calling for fresh suet, as the proportions of flour to fat can change. Most modern processed recipes stipulate packaged suet.
Also available is vegetable suet, which is made from refined vegetable oil. [24]
Consumption of suet is forbidden according to Jewish law and it was reserved for ritual altar sacrifices. This restriction only applies to those animals which were used for sacrifices, and thus does not include wild animals such as deer. Maimonides in his book Guide To The Perplexed, writes that one of the ideas behind this commandment is that the Torah wants to teach people to develop the discipline to avoid very tasty foods that are unhealthy.
Cakes of suet are popularly used for feeding wild birds and may be made with other solid fats, such as lard. Rolled oats, bird seed, cornmeal, raisins, and unsalted nuts are often incorporated into the suet cakes. [25]
In North America, birds such as woodpeckers, goldfinches, juncos, cardinals, thrushes, jays, kinglets, bluebirds, chickadees, nuthatches, wrens, and starlings prefer bird feeders offering suet. [26]
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment, and used as a fat in baking, sauce-making, pan frying, and other cooking procedures.
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit, nuts, fruit preserves, brown sugar, sweetened vegetables, or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy. Savoury pies may be filled with meat, eggs and cheese or a mixture of meat and vegetables.
Animal fats and oils are lipids derived from animals: oils are liquid at room temperature, and fats are solid. Chemically, both fats and oils are composed of triglycerides. Although many animal parts and secretions may yield oil, in commercial practice, oil is extracted primarily from rendered tissue fats from livestock animals like pigs, chickens and cows. Dairy products yield animal fat and oil products such as butter.
Pudding is a type of food. It can be either a dessert, served after the main meal, or a savoury dish, served as part of the main meal.
Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of edible plants. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are mixtures of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fats from seeds. Olive oil, palm oil, and rice bran oil are examples of fats from other parts of plants. In common usage, vegetable oil may refer exclusively to vegetable fats which are liquid at room temperature. Vegetable oils are usually edible.
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton suet, primarily made up of triglycerides.
Coconut oil is an edible oil derived from the kernels, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat below around 25 °C (77 °F), and a clear thin liquid oil at higher temperatures. Unrefined varieties have a distinct coconut aroma. Coconut oil is used as a food oil, and in industrial applications for cosmetics and detergent production. The oil is rich in medium-chain fatty acids.
A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds between the carbon atoms. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branched chain of carbon (C) atoms. Along the chain, some carbon atoms are linked by single bonds (-C-C-) and others are linked by double bonds (-C=C-). A double bond along the carbon chain can react with a pair of hydrogen atoms to change into a single -C-C- bond, with each H atom now bonded to one of the two C atoms. Glyceride fats without any carbon chain double bonds are called saturated because they are "saturated with" hydrogen atoms, having no double bonds available to react with more hydrogen.
Hemp oil is oil obtained by pressing hemp seeds. Cold pressed, unrefined hemp oil is dark to clear light green in color, with a nutty flavor. The darker the color, the grassier the flavour. It should not be confused with hash oil, a tetrahydrocannabinol-containing oil made from the Cannabis flower.
Cottonseed oil is cooking oil from the seeds of cotton plants of various species, mainly Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium herbaceum, that are grown for cotton fiber, animal feed, and oil.
Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and is used to make crumbly pastry and other food products.
Peanut oil, also known as groundnut oil or arachis oil, is a vegetable oil derived from peanuts. The oil usually has a mild or neutral flavor but, if made with roasted peanuts, has a stronger peanut flavor and aroma. It is often used in American, Chinese, Indian, African and Southeast Asian cuisine, both for general cooking and in the case of roasted oil, for added flavor. Peanut oil has a high smoke point relative to many other cooking oils, so it is commonly used for frying foods.
Rice bran oil is the oil extracted from the hard outer brown layer of rice called bran. It is known for its high smoke point of 232 °C (450 °F) and mild flavor, making it suitable for high-temperature cooking methods such as stir frying and deep frying. It is popular as a cooking oil in East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Southern China and Malaysia.
The Bedfordshire clanger is a dish from Bedfordshire and adjacent counties in England, such as Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. It dates back to at least the 19th century. It is still available at various bakers and served at some cafes, restaurants and local places of interest.
Avocado oil is an edible oil extracted from the pulp of avocados, the fruit of Persea americana. It is used as an edible oil both raw and for cooking, where it is noted for its high smoke point. It is also used for lubrication and in cosmetics.
Steak and kidney pudding is a traditional British main course in which beef steak and beef, veal, pork or lamb kidney are enclosed in suet pastry and slow-steamed on a stovetop.
A suet pudding is a boiled, steamed or baked pudding made with wheat flour and suet, often with breadcrumb, dried fruits such as raisins, other preserved fruits, and spices. The British term pudding usually refers to a dessert or sweet course, but suet puddings may be savoury.
Lard is a semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering the fatty tissue of a pig. It is distinguished from tallow, a similar product derived from fat of cattle or sheep.
Artificial marbling is the injection of animal fat or vegetable oil into lean meat in order to simulate the appearance of marbling and attempt to improve the palatability of inexpensive cuts by preventing them from drying out or losing flavour during the freezing or cooking process. Lean cuts of beef are one common target of artificial marbling. The process may also be performed on pork. It has been described as a more technologically advanced form of larding.