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Kidney Pudding

A steamed pudding made from minced kidneys, bread crumbs, suet, milk, egg, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the skin from the kidneys and mince them very finely.

  2. Mince the suet and combine it with the bread crumbs in a bowl.

  3. Add the chopped parsley, thyme, grated nutmeg, salt, and pepper and mix well.

  4. Beat the egg, mix it with the milk, and stir the egg-milk mixture into the kidney mixture.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered bowl or shape and cover with paper.

  2. Steam for 1 hour.

  3. Serve hot with brown sauce poured over it.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the pudding and soak up the liquid to hold its shape.
Egg
Binds the mixture so it sets firm when steamed.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and keeps the pudding tender as it steams.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that gives the pudding a softer, moist texture.
Kidneys (in the method)
Provide the main savoury meat flavour and body of the pudding.

The step that matters

Covering the bowl before steaming. Covering with paper traps steam so the pudding cooks gently and stays moist rather than drying or crusting on top.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, nutmeg, egg, parsley, 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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