$10.00 bucks a lb for suet is a bit more than what I pay for it. The last I had a local butcher set aside for me a few months ago was $1.49/lb. Of course, it's a mix of suet and back fat, which is fine with me.
I was also surprised to hear of beef suet selling for $10.00 a pound. Even in these days of Joe Biden inflated beef prices, it is still possible to find decent looking N.Y. Strip steaks for around that price when on sale. Prices under Trump were much lower, but getting away from those mean Tweets is worth the cost to some. Beef suet from local butchers is still quite available, and still very cheap. The fact that it mostly cooks down into a liquid fat makes suet very suitable to add to ground venison. Far cheaper and much better tasting than adding fatty pork, in my opinion.
I also find the taste of venison to be very dependent upon the diet of the deer, along with how they are killed and handled after the kill. I try to hunt areas that are within a mile or so of farms with good feed like corn, along with other agricultural crops, apple orchards, and goodies like White Oak acorns. Well fed deer are also naturally larger on average. After gutting, I always do a quick autopsy and slice open the stomach to see what they have been eating. My autopsy results have shown that all my deer have died from acute lead poisoning! Gut shooting a beef cow and chasing it around for an hour to finish it off is going to make for poor eating of adrenalin laced muscle. It is best to make a clean and very quick kill, not just for being humane and ethical, but to contribute to quality of the meat too. Proper cleaning, and aging if possible, also makes a big difference. Aging is often tough to do. Too warm, and the meat will spoil... too cold, and it will freeze solid. Meat processors have the luxury of aging meat at the correct temperature in large refrigeration units. Hanging neck down with the head removed or carotid arteries and jugular veins cut is better than hanging neck up and having blood pool in the steaks... unless you like venison that has a liver taste. Cameron's Dad and uncle obviously knew that there is knowledge and skill required to do a good butchering job.
One buddy told me about a guy who was doing deer processing very cheap. He later told me that when he shot a deer, he took it to this guy to cut up. He said he was allowed to stay and help. They carted the deer into his basement, and the "butcher" was extremely drunk, and still drinking while he did the job. Naturally, all that beer soon filled his bladder. He walked over to a floor drain, and proceeded to piss down the drain while handling his trouser trout with his bloody hands. Then, without washing his hands, he drunkenly went back to cutting up my buddy's deer. This story kinda explains why Winston Churchill said that the two things that should not be seen by the public are the making of laws, and the making of sausage.
I'd think beef suet at $10.00 a pound would give pause to the people who hang chunks of it in netting to feed the birds as a high calorie supplement during the cold winter months. But if Build Back Better inflation contributes to mass starvation in birds, we can always blame it on Climate Change!
