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Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

A boiled pudding made with beefsteak, kidneys, suet crust, flour, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

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

  2. Make a suet crust by mixing 6 ounces of suet with 1 pound of flour and enough milk to form a dough.

  3. Line a dish with the suet crust, leaving some overhanging.

Fill and seal

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

  2. Add another layer of steak, kidney, and seasoning until the dish is full.

  3. Pour in enough water to come within 2 inches of the top.

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

Boil and serve

  1. Flour a cloth, tie it around the pudding, and place it in boiling water.

  2. Boil for at least 4 hours, replenishing with hot water as needed.

  3. After boiling, cut a small hole in the top of the crust to prevent bursting.

  4. Serve the pudding 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 boil.
Kidneys
Adds a rich, strongly flavoured meat that deepens the savoury taste of the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the crust rich and tender as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the suet crust that encloses the filling.
Milk
Binds the flour and suet into a dough with a soft, workable texture.

The step that matters

Boil for at least 4 hours, keeping the water topped up. Long, steady boiling is needed to make the meat tender and cook the crust through. If the water level drops, the pudding is exposed and can cook unevenly, so hot water must be added 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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