Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Suet Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a suet crust ½ inch thick and line a quart basin with it, raising the crust 1½ to 2 inches above the edge.
Layer the trimmed rump steak in the basin, seasoning with salt and pepper or cayenne.
Pour in enough cold water to create gravy.
Roll out a cover for the pudding, moisten the edges, and press them together with the crust.
Cook and serve
Flour a cloth dipped in hot water, tie it over the pudding, and secure the corners.
Place the pudding in boiling water and cook for 3 to 5 hours, depending on size.
When done, pierce the middle of the crust with a fork to prevent bursting, remove the cloth, and cut a small opening on top to release steam.
Serve immediately.
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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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet crust
- Forms the enclosing pastry that holds the steak and gravy while the pudding steams.
- Rump steak
- Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, slow steaming in the basin.
- Flour
- Dusts the cloth so it does not stick to the pudding crust during steaming.
The step that matters
Piercing and venting the crust when done. Steam builds up inside the sealed pudding as it cooks, so piercing the crust with a fork and opening a small vent on top lets pressure escape and prevents the crust from bursting.
“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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