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Steak and Kidney Pudding

A boiled pudding made with steak, kidneys, flour, suet, and water, wrapped in a dry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Steak and Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crust

  1. Make a dry crust using flour, suet, and butter as directed elsewhere.

  2. Grease a pudding basin with dripping.

  3. Roll out the crust.

  4. Take two-thirds of the crust to line the basin and press it into the basin.

Fill and cover

  1. Slice the steak.

  2. Slice the kidneys.

  3. Season the sliced meat and kidneys with pepper and salt.

  4. Pile the seasoned meat and kidneys lightly into the basin.

  5. Pour in ½ cup of water.

  6. Wet the edge of the crust with water.

  7. Roll out the remaining crust.

  8. Cover the pudding securely with the remaining crust.

Cloth and boil

  1. Dip a cloth in boiling water.

  2. Place the cloth over the top of the pudding.

  3. Tie the cloth with string and secure the ends.

  4. Plunge the basin into plenty of boiling water.

  5. Boil the pudding for three hours.

Turn out and serve

  1. Remove the basin from the water.

  2. Take off the cloth.

  3. Turn out the pudding onto a hot dish.

  4. Serve hot.

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. 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

Steak
Forms the main savoury filling and becomes tender during long gentle boiling.
Kidneys
Adds a rich, deep meaty flavour to the filling.
Flour
Builds the structure of the crust that holds the filling together.
Suet
Its fat keeps the crust tender and light rather than tough.

The step that matters

Securing the cloth and keeping the basin submerged. A loose cloth or a basin not fully under boiling water lets water seep in, soggying the crust and leaving the filling undercooked. Steady boiling steam and water cook the pudding gently and set the crust evenly over the three hours.

“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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