Name: Rump Steak Pudding
Ingredients: 2 pounds tender rump steak, cut into 1.5-inch pieces; 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; good suet crust, ½ inch thick; ¼ pint stock, gravy, or water; flour for dusting; butter for greasing

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rump Steak Pudding

Ingredients

2 pounds tender rump steak, cut into 1.5-inch pieces
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
good suet crust, ½ inch thick
¼ pint stock, gravy, or water
flour for dusting
butter for greasing

Directions

Prepare the filling

Season the steak pieces with salt and pepper.
Butter a shallow pudding basin and line it with the suet crust, leaving 1 inch of pastry over the edge.
Place the seasoned steak in the basin and add the stock, gravy, or water.
Cover the meat with a circular piece of pastry, moisten the edge, and press it closed.

Cook and serve

Tie the basin loosely in a cloth that has been wrung out of boiling water and dusted with flour.
Plunge the pudding into boiling water and boil quickly for 4 to 5 hours.
Serve in the basin with a napkin tied around it or turn it out onto a hot dish after resting for 5 minutes.
Optionally, cut a circular piece from the top and add a slice of butter to enrich the gravy.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Rump steak: Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long, gentle boil.
Suet crust: Forms a sturdy pastry case that holds the filling and gravy while it steams.
Stock: Adds liquid that moistens the meat and builds the gravy as the pudding cooks.
Butter: Adds richness to the gravy and helps the finished dish taste fuller.

The step that matters

Boiling the pudding. The water must stay at a rolling boil and be topped up as needed. Steady heat cooks the tough rump steak until tender and sets the pastry. Weak simmering leaves the meat chewy and the crust soggy.

“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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Rump Steak Pudding