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Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

A boiled pudding made from beef steak, kidney, flour, and water, lined with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a bowl with pastry.

  2. Cut the beef steak and kidney into small pieces.

  3. Season the meat with salt, pepper, and a little flour, then fill the bowl nearly full with water.

Cook

  1. Cover the bowl with pastry.

  2. Tie a clean cloth over it.

  3. Place the bowl in boiling water and let it boil for at least three hours.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef steak
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long gentle boil.
Beef kidney
Adds a rich, deep meaty flavour to the filling.
Flour
Lightly coats the meat and helps thicken the juices around it.
Pastry
Forms a sealed crust that holds the filling and keeps it moist during boiling.

The step that matters

Keep the bowl boiling for the full time. The meat needs a long, steady boil to become tender. If the water drops too low or stops simmering, the filling stays tough and the pastry may cook unevenly. Keep the water topped up and boiling throughout.

“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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