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Lark Pudding

A boiled pudding made with larks stuffed with liver farce and oysters, wrapped in steak, cooked in suet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lark Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease and line a 1.5‑pint pudding basin with suet paste.

  2. Bone and clean the larks, then stuff each with liver farce and an oyster.

  3. Wrap each lark in a thin strip of steak, seasoning with pepper and nutmeg.

Fill the basin

  1. Place some steak pieces in the bottom of the basin, then add the rolled larks.

  2. Sprinkle chopped shallot and mushrooms over the larks.

  3. Pour in the brown sauce and fill with any remaining steak pieces.

Cover and boil

  1. Wet the edge of the paste, cover with a top crust, and tie tightly in a cloth.

  2. Plunge into boiling water and boil gently for 2 hours.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Larks
Provide the main meat, forming the centre of the pudding.
Fillet steak
Wraps and lines the larks, adding meaty flavour and body to the filling.
Liver farce
Adds richness and a soft, moist texture to the stuffing.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury depth to the stuffing.
Brown sauce
Adds moisture and savoury flavour that gently cooks the filling.
Suet paste
Forms a sealed crust that holds the filling together during boiling.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth. The cloth must be tied tightly and the pudding kept in gently boiling water so the crust seals and cooks evenly. A loose seal lets water in and the crust turns soggy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, liver, shallot, mushroom, pepper, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, liver, shallot, mushroom, pepper, sauce. 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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