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Kidney Pudding

A savory pudding made with kidneys, flour, dripping, and spices, baked in a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix 2 tablespoons of flour with pepper and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Cut the kidneys into slices.

  3. Dip each kidney slice into the seasoning.

  4. Combine the remaining flour with baking powder, salt, and dripping to form a paste.

  5. Roll out the paste.

  6. Grease a pudding basin.

  7. Line the basin with the paste.

Assemble

  1. Fill the basin with the kidneys.

  2. Sprinkle each layer with chopped parsley.

  3. Cover with more pastry.

  4. Dip a cloth in boiling water.

  5. Flour the cloth thickly.

  6. Lay the cloth over the pudding.

  7. Tie the cloth securely around the rim.

  8. Tie the corners over the top to form a handle.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the basin in a pan of boiling water.

  2. Boil for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the basin from the water.

  4. Dip the basin in cold water briefly.

  5. Take off the cloth.

  6. Serve on a hot dish.

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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidneys
Form the main filling and provide the dish's savoury, meaty flavour.
Flour
Forms the paste that encloses the filling and sets into a firm, cooked crust.
Dripping
Adds fat to the paste, making it tender and rich.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking, helping the paste rise and become light.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours. The pudding must stay submerged in steadily boiling water for the full time so the kidneys cook through and the paste sets. Too little heat or time leaves the filling undercooked and the crust heavy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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