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Veal Pudding

A steamed pudding made with veal, bacon, thyme, and a suet crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a clean frying pan over low heat.

  2. Add the veal, bacon, thyme, pepper, and salt; cook for about 10 minutes.

  3. Add warm water, bring to a boil, then let it cool.

Assemble and boil

  1. Line a pudding dish with the suet crust.

  2. Layer the veal and bacon in the dish and pour the gravy over it.

  3. Roll out a piece of dough for the lid, place it on top, and seal the edges.

  4. Tie the dish in a pudding cloth and place it in a pot of boiling water.

  5. Boil continuously for about one hour until done.

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. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + thymetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,758 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean veal
Forms the main meaty filling that becomes tender during slow cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for flavour while the veal cooks in the pan.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat that flavours the veal and the gravy.
Suet crust
Forms the pastry lining and lid that encase the filling during steaming.

The step that matters

Boil continuously for about one hour. The pudding must stay at a steady boil so the crust cooks through and the veal becomes tender. If the water drops too low or stops boiling, the pudding cooks unevenly and the crust can turn heavy and soggy.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, butter, 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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