Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Steak Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Mix flour, suet, and salt in a bowl.
Add cold water until the mixture is stiff like pie crust.
Roll out the dough to ½ inch thick.
Assemble and bake
Season the beef or mutton with pepper and salt.
Place the meat in an earthen dish and add 1 cup of water.
Cover the dish with the rolled-out dough.
Cook in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 5 hours.
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.
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and beef 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the dough's structure, giving the crust body once it is rolled and baked.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and rich as it cooks.
- Beef or mutton
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, slow cooking.
The step that matters
Cover the dish with the rolled-out dough. The dough must seal the dish so steam stays inside and the meat cooks in its own moisture. A loose or gapped cover lets steam escape and can leave the meat dry.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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