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 ↓
Rump Steak Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the basin
Roll out the suet crust to ½ inch thick.
Line the basin with the crust, raising it 1½ to 2 inches above the edge.
Fill and seal
Fill with layers of trimmed rump steak, seasoned with salt and pepper.
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.
Tie a cloth dipped in hot water and floured over the pudding.
Boil and serve
Boil in fast‑boiling water for 3 to 5 hours, depending on size.
When done, pierce the crust with a fork to prevent bursting, remove the cloth, and cut a small opening for steam to escape.
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
- Rump steak
- Forms the main filling and, slowly boiled, becomes tender and flavorful in the gravy.
- Suet crust
- Encloses the filling and forms a soft, rich pastry that steams during the long boil.
- Cold water
- Creates the gravy that forms in the basin as the steak cooks.
- Flour
- Dusts the cloth so it does not stick to the pudding crust during boiling.
The step that matters
Pierce the crust and vent steam when done. Trapped steam builds pressure inside the sealed pudding and can make the crust burst, so piercing it with a fork and cutting a steam opening releases that pressure safely.
“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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