It has been suggested that if it is necessary to find a substitute for suet, you can take lard, freeze it, and then grate it before putting it into the recipe. The same thing could also be done with vegetable shortening.

i always use grated frozen butter (i can't get suet here) and it works a treat

Here's a big smile for my last two answerers.. ..

Spent another day trying to track down ready-prepared gluten-free suet, and hit a brick wall.  So today, I bit the bullet and headed to my butcher and have come away with free (they don't charge for it!) suet.  There should be enough to use in my mincemeat, and some over to render into tallow to cook with and to give away as Christmas presents.

Sadly, Mummza, it looks as though I'll be stuck with the butcher from now on in as eating vegetable-oil (including sunflower, rapeseed, grapeseed, groundnut, etc) based foods, or foods cooked in the oils leaves me with horribly arthritic-feeling joints - I seem to be stuck with animal fats and olive oil (extra-virgin only, as well    ) from now on in...

Update:  using proper raw suet is a doddle - no smell, no nasty texture - really easy to do, and won't hesitate to use it again.  It even tastes neutral (yes, I did try a little bit    ), so shouldn't affect the taste of the mincemeat in any way     

Last edited by oliviascotland (Wed 28 Nov 12 7:10pm)