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Steak Pudding

A suet pastry encased pudding with steak, onion, and gravy, steamed or boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Steak Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the basin

  1. Line a basin with suet pastry, reserving some for the cover.

  2. Cut the steak into pieces and place it in the basin.

  3. Chop the onion.

  4. Slightly brown the onion.

  5. Add the onion to the basin.

Add the gravy and cover

  1. Make a gravy with water, pepper, salt, and a little flour.

  2. Pour the gravy over the meat.

  3. Cover with the reserved pastry, pressing the edges together and trimming off excess.

Cook

  1. Steam or boil the pudding.

  2. If boiling, tie a cloth over it.

  3. If steaming, cover with greased paper.

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

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

  2. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 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

Suet pastry
Forms the enclosing crust that holds the filling and cooks into a tender, rich wrapper.
Steak
Provides the meat filling, which becomes tender with long, moist cooking.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma, which deepen when lightly browned before going into the basin.
Flour
Thickens the water-based gravy so it clings to the meat instead of running off.

The step that matters

Covering and sealing the pudding. Pressing the pastry edges together seals the basin so steam and gravy stay inside. A poor seal lets liquid escape and leaves the filling dry or the crust soggy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour. 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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