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Lark Pudding

A savory pudding made with larks, oysters, steak, kidneys, mushrooms, and stock, baked in a suet crust.

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

Lark Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the basin

  1. Butter a basin and line it with the suet crust.

Fill the basin

  1. Layer the small pieces of steak rolled in flour, pepper, and salt at the bottom.

  2. Add a layer of kidneys prepared in the same way.

  3. Place the cleaned larks, oysters, and mushrooms on top.

  4. Fill with the remaining steak and kidneys.

  5. Pour in enough stock to fill the basin without overflowing.

Boil and serve

  1. Cover with the crust, tie it up, and boil for 6 hours.

  2. When serving, remove the pudding cloth and wrap a serviette around the basin.

  3. Have hot stock ready to fill the pudding when cut.

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

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

  2. Oyster + mushroomtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. 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

Suet crust
Forms the enclosing pastry that holds the filling and stock during the long boil.
Rump steak
Provides the meaty base of the filling, becoming tender through long, slow simmering.
Sheep's kidneys
Add a rich, savoury, slightly mineral flavour and firm texture to the filling.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour that seasons the filling as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling as they cook in the stock.

The step that matters

Pour in enough stock to fill the basin without overflowing. Stock fills the air gaps around the meat so the pudding steams and stays moist rather than drying out. Overfilling can push liquid out during the boil and spoil the crust seal.

“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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