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Beefsteak Pudding

A baked pudding made with thinly sliced beefsteak, flour, suet, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beefsteak into thin slices.

  2. Dip the slices in seasoned flour mixed with salt and pepper.

  3. Roll each slice with a small piece of fat inside.

  4. Chop the suet finely.

  5. Mix the chopped suet with the flour and a pinch of salt.

Make the paste

  1. Make a stiff paste with the flour mixture and cold water.

  2. Roll the paste out.

  3. Line a greased shallow pudding basin with the paste.

  4. Reserve one-third of the paste for the cover.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the pieces of meat in the basin.

  2. Season the meat.

  3. Pour a little water into the basin.

  4. Moisten the edges of the basin.

  5. Cover with the reserved paste.

  6. Tie the cover over with buttered paper.

  7. Place the basin in a bag.

  8. Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 1 hour and 45 minutes.

  9. Remove the paper.

  10. Unmold the pudding.

  11. Serve it in a basin.

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 + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Forms the savoury meat filling that cooks tender inside the suet crust.
Flour
Builds the stiff paste that forms the basin lining and cover, holding the pudding together.
Suet
Adds fat that enriches the paste and keeps the meat moist as it cooks.
Cold water
Binds the flour and suet into a stiff paste that holds its shape while steaming.

The step that matters

Sealing the cover. If the paste cover is not well moistened at the edges and tied tightly, steam escapes or water enters, so the crust may fail to seal and the pudding can turn soggy or dry.

“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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