Name: Sussex Pudding-Dish
Ingredients: 2 pounds good steak (cut into small pieces); 2 kidneys (cut into 8 pieces each); ½ can mushrooms; 12 oysters; ¼ cup flour; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; ½ teaspoon black pepper; Crust for cover

Why it works: Mushroom and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sussex Pudding-Dish

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare a large, shallow bowl that holds about 3 pints.

Fill and cover

Layer the steak in the bowl, dredge with flour, and season with salt and pepper.
Continue layering with kidneys, mushrooms, and oysters.
Moisten the edge of the crust and press it down firmly over the filling.
Wrap the bowl in a cloth soaked in hot water and floured.

Cook and serve

Place the bowl in boiling water and boil for at least 4 hours.
Serve in the dish with a napkin pinned around it.

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.

Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + oystertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,299 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + flourtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,253 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Oyster + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Steak: Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the filling.
Kidneys: Add a rich, deep meaty flavor and chewy texture to the filling.
Flour: Dredging the meat thickens the juices into a light gravy as it cooks.
Oysters: Add a briny, savory flavor that seasons the filling.
Mushrooms: Add moisture and earthy flavor to the filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the bowl for at least 4 hours. The filling must cook through slowly in gently simmering water. Too little water or heat that drops too low can leave the meat tough or undercooked, while the floured cloth and sealed crust keep steam and juices inside.

“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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Sussex Pudding-Dish