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Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

A pudding made from beefsteak and kidney pieces layered with a suet and flour crust, boiled for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the rump steak into 1‑inch square pieces and each kidney into 8 pieces.

  2. Make a crust with the suet and flour, using 6 ounces of suet for every pound of flour, adding milk as needed.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Line a dish with the crust, leaving some to overlap the edge.

  2. Layer the bottom with steak and kidney pieces, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Continue layering until the dish is full, adding enough water to come within 2 inches of the top.

  4. Moisten the crust edges, cover the pudding, and seal the edges together.

  5. Wrap the pudding in a cloth soaked in hot water and tie it securely.

Boil and serve

  1. Place the pudding in boiling water and let it boil for at least 4 hours, replenishing with hot water as needed.

  2. After boiling, cut a small hole in the top of the crust to prevent bursting and serve in the basin or an ornamental 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Rump steak
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, gentle boil.
Kidneys
Adds a rich, strongly savory flavour and firm texture to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the crust rich, tender and moist as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Forms the crust's structure, holding the pudding together while it steams.

The step that matters

Keeping the boil going. The pudding needs a long, steady boil so the meat softens and the crust cooks through. Letting the water drop lowers the temperature and can leave the filling tough and the crust doughy, so replenish with hot water as needed.

“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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