Name: Beef-steak Pudding Baked
Ingredients: 2 cups milk; 2 eggs; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 2 cups potatoes, boiled and mashed; steaks, seasoned with salt and pepper

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef-steak Pudding Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

Make a batter by mixing milk, eggs, and flour, or use mashed potatoes instead.

Assemble and bake

Spread a little batter at the bottom of a baking dish.
Place the seasoned steaks on top of the batter.
Pour the remaining batter over the steaks.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until cooked through.

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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 structure as it bakes.
All-purpose flour: Forms the batter's body, giving the pudding its structure as it cooks.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and loosens the batter so it spreads and bakes evenly.
Steaks: Provide the meat and savory flavor that the batter cooks around.

The step that matters

Bake until cooked through. The batter must set fully, and the steaks must reach doneness inside the batter. Undercooked eggs and flour stay wet and gummy, so check that the center is set and the meat is cooked through before serving.

Swap the potato

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

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Spinachfits about as well
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, flour, 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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Beef-steak Pudding Baked