Skip to main content
Main

Beef Pudding

A steamed beef pudding made with kidney, beefsteak, onion, spices, and stock, encased in a paste crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a pudding mould with a good paste crust.

  2. Cut the beef kidney into small pieces.

  3. Chop the onion finely.

  4. Slice the tender beefsteak not very thin.

  5. Season the beefsteak with cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, and a pinch of ground cloves.

Fill and steam

  1. Put the beef kidney, onion, and seasoned beefsteak into the mould.

  2. Add 1 cup of beef stock.

  3. Cover the pudding with the crust and place the cover on the mould.

  4. Set the mould into a steamer and steam for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the size.

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. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef kidney
Provides rich, meaty flavour and a firm, tender bite as it cooks.
Beefsteak
Supplies tender meat that becomes juicy and savoury during long steaming.
Beef stock
Adds moisture and savoury flavour that keeps the filling from drying out.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the steamed filling.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam gently and keep the water topped up so the suet crust cooks through without drying out. Long, even heat tenderises the kidney and steak, so the filling becomes soft rather than tough.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, 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.

More beef pudding recipes

with Woodcock 5 See all 28 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes