Name: Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding
Ingredients: 2 pounds rump steak; 2 kidneys; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Black pepper, to taste; 6 ounces suet; 1 pound all-purpose flour; Milk, as needed; Water, as needed

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the rump steak into 1-inch square pieces and each kidney into 8 pieces.
Make a suet crust by mixing 6 ounces of suet with 1 pound of flour and enough milk to form a dough.
Line a dish with the suet crust, leaving some for the top.
Layer the bottom with steak and kidney pieces, seasoning with salt and pepper.
Continue layering steak, kidney, and seasoning until the dish is full.
Pour in enough water to come within 2 inches of the top.
Moisten the edges of the crust, cover the pudding, and press the crusts together to seal.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

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Brown Bread461 recipes

Mutton Broth292 recipes

Yorkshire Pudding264 recipes

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Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding