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Dessert

Shropshire Pudding

A sweet pudding made from beef suet, bread, sugar, nutmeg, brandy, and eggs, boiled for hours.

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

Make the mixture

  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 to the mixture and combine well.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a cloth or mold and 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

Fresh beef suet
Melts during long cooking to give the pudding a rich, moist texture.
Brown bread
Absorbs the liquids and gives the pudding its body and structure.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and add richness and tenderness to the pudding.
Egg whites
Help lighten the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavor.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 hours. Long, steady boiling cooks the eggs and sets the pudding through while the suet melts. Water that drops too low or boils unevenly can leave the centre undercooked 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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