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Beefsteak Pudding

A steamed pudding made from thin strips of beef steak, kidney, and suet crust, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beef steak into thin strips.

  2. Place a small piece of fat and kidney on each strip.

  3. Roll up the strips and dip them in flour.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Line a well‑greased basin with suet crust.

  2. Put the rolled steak and kidney into the basin.

  3. Season each layer with salt and pepper.

  4. Fill the basin about halfway with cold water.

  5. Cover with a lid of pastry and a greased paper on top.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 3 hours.

  2. Serve in the basin with a napkin folded 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.

  1. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Forms the main meat filling, becoming tender during long, gentle steaming.
Kidney
Adds rich, savoury flavour and a deeper, meaty taste to the filling.
Flour
Dusting the rolled strips helps them hold together and gives a light coating.
Suet crust
Forms a rich, sturdy pastry case that holds the filling during steaming.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming must stay gentle and steady so the meat becomes tender and the crust cooks through. Too little heat or water can leave the meat tough and the pastry underdone.

“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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