Suet is hard, white fat taken from around the kidneys of a cow or sheep. It is firmer and drier than the soft fat you scrape off a piece of meat, so it grates into little crumbs rather than smearing. British cooking uses it in old-fashioned heavy dishes — suet pudding, dumplings dropped into a stew, mince pies — where it melts as the food steams and leaves the inside light. You buy it shredded in a box, and there is a vegetarian version made from plant oils. The other place you meet the word is bird feeding: people hang a suet ball or suet block outside in winter because the fat gives small birds a lot of energy. It is uncountable. To most people now the word sounds like something a grandmother used, and outside Britain many cooks have never handled it. It is said "SOO-it", two syllables.