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Partridges, Pudding of

A boiled pudding made with partridges, rump steak, gravy, and suet crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Partridges, Pudding of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the partridges into neat joints and remove the skin if they are not very young.

  2. Line a quart pudding basin with a ½ inch thick suet crust, leaving an inch above the edge.

  3. Place a thin slice of rump steak at the bottom of the basin.

  4. Add the partridge pieces, season with pepper and salt, and pour over the brown gravy.

Cover and boil

  1. Roll out the cover, moisten the edge, and press it over the pudding.

  2. Flour a pudding cloth, tie it securely over the pudding, and plunge it into boiling water.

  3. Boil continuously for three hours.

  4. After boiling, cut a small round of pastry on top to let steam escape.

Serve

  1. Serve in the dish it was cooked in or turn it out after greasing the basin with butter.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Partridges
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender during the long steamed boil.
Rump steak
Adds savoury meat flavour and juices that enrich the gravy beneath the crust.
Suet crust
Forms a sturdy, moist pastry casing that holds the filling during long steaming.
Brown gravy
Supplies liquid and savoury depth so the filling stays moist while it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil continuously for three hours. Water must keep boiling for the full time, because the long steady heat is what cooks the tough game meat tender and sets the suet crust. If the water drops below a simmer, the pudding cooks unevenly and the meat stays tough.

“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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