Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Baked Beef Steak Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix milk, eggs, and flour to create a batter.
Spread a little batter at the bottom of a baking dish.
Assemble and bake
Season the beef steak with salt, pepper, and chopped onions, then place it in the dish.
Pour the remaining batter over the steak.
Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through.
Serve hot.
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.
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Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
-
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, tender crumb as it bakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the batter's structure, setting into the pudding as it bakes.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and richness to the batter.
- Beef steak
- Provides the main filling, whose juices flavour the pudding as it cooks.
The step that matters
Spreading a thin base of batter. A thin batter layer at the bottom of the dish keeps the steak from sitting directly on the pan, which helps prevent the base from scorching or drying out before the batter above sets.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour, beef, pepper, mushroom, ketchup):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, beef, pepper, mushroom, ketchup. 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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