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Beefsteak Pudding , One for Each Person

A pudding made with diced beef, kidneys, and sauce, wrapped in pudding paste and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pudding , One for Each Person

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease and line large darioles with thinly rolled Pudding Paste.

  2. Dice the fillet of beef and kidneys into small pieces.

  3. Season the meat with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with parsley and chives.

Make the filling

  1. Fry the mixture in butter for five minutes.

  2. Add one pint of Brown Sauce or Espagnole Sauce and let it stew for fifteen minutes.

  3. Fill each dariole with the meat mixture and some sauce.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover with paste and tie securely in a buttered cloth.

  2. Boil for one hour.

  3. Remove the cloth and turn the puddings out onto a serving dish, pouring any remaining sauce over them.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beef + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef
Provides the main meaty body and chew of the filling once cooked slowly in sauce.
Kidneys
Add a rich, strong flavour and a firmer, slightly dense texture to the filling.
Pudding paste
Forms the sealed suet-style crust that holds the filling and steams during boiling.
Brown sauce or espagnole sauce
Adds moisture and savoury depth so the meat stays juicy inside the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for one hour. The paste must be sealed and the water kept at a steady simmer so the crust steams evenly and the meat cooks through without drying out or becoming soggy.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beef, pepper, parsley, sauce):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, pepper, parsley, 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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