Name: Beef Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound minced beef; 1 cup suet; 2 cups flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup water; Potatoes; Gravy

Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Beef Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

Mix minced beef, suet, flour, and salt in a bowl.
Gradually add water to form a dough.

Assemble and cook

Roll out the dough and line a pudding basin.
Fill with the beef mixture and cover with more dough.
Steam for 2 hours.

Serve

Serve with potatoes and gravy.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,677 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Minced beef: Provides the main filling and savory meaty flavor.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the filling moist and helps the dough stay tender.
Flour: Forms the dough structure that holds the filling together while steaming.