Help! where is suet?

kiely · Post by **kiely** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:22 am

Hello
Does anyone know if I can get Suet or vegetarian suet here??
It is that time of year when making xmas puds and mince pies and I so need to get cracking.
All help appreciated

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Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:18 pm

Yeah, ummm... tali? ... that we feed it to birds...

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:02 pm

kiely wrote:Hello
Does anyone know if I can get Suet or vegetarian suet here??
It is that time of year when making xmas puds and mince pies and I so need to get cracking.
All help appreciated

As you are in London, I'd suggest Tesco or Safeway.

If you were in Finland ... I'd say good luck.

kiely · Post by **kiely** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:52 pm

I am not in London, I am here in Helsinki. I see it is used in Pasha at Easter so it must be available?

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:03 pm

Pashas made out of curd... and eggs and cream and butter... sukaatti is dried lemon peel bits... The thing is that you go look in the butter section for non-butter. there used to be Kokki-brand naudanrasva which also the health fascists have forbidden so its hard to find as is pigfat or lard...

kiely · Post by **kiely** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:29 pm

Thank you for your help.
I will try and look for it. My fingers are crossed.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:48 pm

Theres some veggie - ummm.... stuff.. but thats coconut grease mostly.

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:05 am

kiely wrote:I am not in London, I am here in Helsinki. I see it is used in Pasha at Easter so it must be available?

Your profile says you are in London.

Pasha doesn´t have suet in it.

AFAIK, there is no equivalent of Atora / vegetable suet here. There are coconut oil baking products I think it´s called Cocos .. UK vegetable suet is coconut oil based, but they are not the same thing.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 8:28 am

If I can be arsed to go to the store I'll look what the munkkirasva has in it.

kiely · Post by **kiely** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:12 am

Bless you all.
None of you need to go to go to the store especially for me.
I will look. I have seen the coco packet in the K market. Have any of you used it in baking?

FinnGuyHelsinki · Post by **FinnGuyHelsinki** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:55 am

kiely wrote:Bless you all.
None of you need to go to go to the store especially for me.
I will look. I have seen the coco packet in the K market. Have any of you used it in baking?

Some recipes I've seen coconut fat used in is for some sweet bits (e.g. rice or coconut 'balls' made in tiny cupcake molds) that need the hardening quality of the fat. Other than that, I don't see any benefits in using it compared to butter when baking cakes etc., Christmas pudding I wouldn't know.

jas_rho · Post by **jas_rho** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:24 am

kiely wrote:Bless you all.
None of you need to go to go to the store especially for me.
I will look. I have seen the coco packet in the K market. Have any of you used it in baking?

I've used it in place of crisco shortening and I think it produced the same results. There is no coconut taste to it at all so don't worry about that, its not sweet or anything like that if you are thinking of a possible sweet coconut flavor coming from it. I have used it in pie crusts.

CH · Post by CH » Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:25 pm

The thing about different types of fats is that they behave slightly different, so switching from one to another may or may not work. If you are substituting then check out the melting points and try to find something that is as close as possible. Suet is hard fat, with a high melting point, so I don't think you really can substitute it and get the same results. This page suggests solid vegetable shortening, which also has a high melting point: http://www.ochef.com/657.htm
But notice that coconut oil has a low melting point. By hydrogenating it (the block stuff, I assume) it will be higher, but I don't know if it is high enough.

I would ask a butcher shop in a kauppahalli. That would probably be the best place to get it, but you may have to order it. You can also ask from the meat counter at a supermarket, they usually take orders. Or, failing everything, there is usually suet sold for birds in the winter, so you could ask the ones that manufacture it if it is safe for human consumption (it should be if it doesn't say it isn't

).

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sun Dec 06, 2009 2:06 pm

"Sunnuntai" munkkirasva at least claimed to be made out of vegetable oil.

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:36 pm

Pursuivant wrote:"Sunnuntai" munkkirasva at least claimed to be made out of vegetable oil.

It's not the same thing ... suet it's a material that can be made into crumbs. The difference between suet and lard / baking fat / shortening... it's like the difference between the humble banger (crumbly, big bits of meat) and liverwurst (smooth paste).

If you ever see jars of mincemeat for making mince pies ... like this one

you can see little white bits in it ... that's the suet (or today vegetable suet ... coconut oil + rice flower)

* nowadays there's no meat in mincemeat.

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