Mockingbird Muffins (a recipe)

The recipe for these bird treats comes from a great little book called For the Birds: Easy-to-make Recipes for your Feathered Friends. We bought the book at Lowe's; it was in their bird seed and feeders department.

IMPORTANT: These muffins look pretty tasty when they're done, but they are NOT for human consumption!

Mockingbird Muffins

1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 cup grated breadcrumbs
1/2 tbsp. baking soda
3/4 cup currants or raisins
1/2 cup bacon drippings
1/4 tsp. sand
1 cup water

Combine corn meal, flour, breadcrumbs and baking soda in a medium to large bowl and blend together with your hands. Add currants or raisins, bacon drippings, sand and water. Mix well. Spoon the mixture into a muffin tray lined with paper muffin cups. Bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Serve these muffins on a tray feeder or spear them onto tree branches.
Yield: 12 muffins


These are the changes we made to the original recipe:
-- used melted lard instead of bacon drippings
-- omitted the sand
-- for the 1 cup grated breadcrumbs we used ~1/2 cup grated breadcrumbs, 5 or 6 crushed dried eggshells, and then topped off the measuring cup with wild bird seed mix
-- we put the muffins in our large cage suet feeder to serve


In addition to having plenty of recipes for keeping the wild birds in your yard happy, the book also has ideas for building feeders from recycled items, how to deter pests, what to do if you find a baby bird, seasonal hints and and lots of suggestions for feeding success. And there are plenty of photographs, too.

This is a Reader's Digest book, distributed by Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

If you can't find this book in a local store, you can order by calling (800) 788-6262.
The birds in your yard will thank you.