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Baked Beefsteak Pudding

A baked dish of mashed potatoes, milk, eggs, flour, and seasoned beef steaks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Baked Beefsteak 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 the batter

  1. Boil and mash the potatoes through a colander.

  2. In a bowl, mix the mashed potatoes with milk, eggs, and flour to create a batter.

  3. Spread a little batter at the bottom of a baking dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Season the beef steaks and place them on top of the batter.

  2. Pour the remaining batter over the steaks.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until set and golden.

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. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  5. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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, sliceable custard around the steaks.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure to the batter so it holds together while baking.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and potatoes and adds moisture to the batter.
Potatoes
Thicken the batter with starch and add body and softness to the pudding.
Beef steaks
Supply the savory meat filling that the batter bakes around.

The step that matters

Spread a little batter at the bottom of the dish. A thin base layer keeps the steaks from sitting directly on the hot pan, where they can scorch before the batter sets. It also gives the pudding a firm bottom crust to support the meat.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, flour, beef, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, beef, pepper. 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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