Why it works: Flour and pepper 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 ↓
Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bowl
Grease a pudding bowl with dripping.
Roll out the suet crust to ½ inch thick.
Line the pudding bowl with the suet crust.
Cut off the edges of the suet crust.
Roll out the trimmings for a cover.
Prepare the filling
Flatten the steak.
Cut the steak into strips about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide.
Remove skin and fat from the kidney.
Cut the kidney into dice.
Mix flour, salt, and pepper on a plate.
Toss each piece of steak in the flour mixture.
Place a piece of fat on each steak strip.
Place a piece of kidney on each steak strip.
Roll up each steak strip with fat and kidney.
Put each roll into the pudding bowl.
Pour the cold water or stock over the rolls.
Cover and steam
Wet the edges of the lining.
Cover the lining with the prepared paste.
Press the edges tightly to prevent gravy from escaping.
Dip a pudding cloth in boiling water.
Flour the center of the pudding cloth.
Place the pudding cloth over the bowl.
Tie the cloth with string halfway down the bowl.
Form a handle with the corners of the cloth.
Plunge the pudding into a saucepan of boiling water with a little salt.
Boil the pudding for 3 hours.
Ensure the pudding is covered with boiling water.
Replenish the water as needed.
Lift the pudding from the saucepan.
Let the pudding stand for 2-3 minutes.
Remove the cloth.
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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Flour + peppertop 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
- Beef steak
- Provides the main meaty filling that becomes tender during long gentle boiling.
- Ox kidney
- Adds a rich, distinctive savoury flavour and firm texture to the filling.
- Flour
- Coats the steak so it helps thicken the gravy that forms inside the pudding.
- Suet crust (in the method)
- Forms the sealed pastry casing that holds the filling and gravy during steaming.
The step that matters
Press the edges tightly. A tight seal keeps the juices and gravy inside the pudding. Gaps let liquid escape into the boiling water, leaving the filling dry and the crust soggy.
“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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