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Shropshire Pudding

A boiled pudding made with beef suet, bread, sugar, nutmeg, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,032 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Shropshire Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the pudding

  1. In a large bowl, mix the minced suet, grated bread, brown sugar, and grated nutmeg.

  2. Add the brandy, beaten egg yolks, and egg whites; mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture into a cloth or mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 4 hours.

  2. Serve with a sauce made of melted butter, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of brandy.

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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Bread + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Brown bread
Provides the body of the pudding, soaking up liquid to hold its shape.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavour.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that carries through the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 hours. The long, steady boil lets the egg and suet mixture cook through and set evenly. Letting the water drop or boiling unevenly can leave the centre underdone or dense.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, sugar, brandy, egg):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, sugar, brandy, egg. 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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