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Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

A boiled pudding made with beefsteak, kidneys, suet, flour, and milk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Cut the rump steak into 1‑inch square pieces and each kidney into 8 pieces.

  2. In a bowl, mix the suet and flour to make a crust, adding enough milk to form a dough.

Assemble

  1. Line a pudding dish with the crust, leaving some for the top.

  2. Layer the bottom with steak and kidney pieces, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Continue layering until the dish is full, then add enough water to come within 2 inches of the top.

  4. Moisten the edges of the crust, cover the pudding, and seal the edges.

  5. Wrap the pudding in a cloth and tie it securely.

Boil and serve

  1. Place the pudding in boiling water and boil for at least 4 hours, replenishing water as needed.

  2. After boiling, cut a small hole in the top of the crust to prevent bursting.

  3. Serve the pudding in the basin or on a plate with a napkin.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the meaty filling that becomes tender during long, slow boiling.
Kidneys
Add a rich, savoury flavour and firm texture to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and moist as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Forms the dough structure of the crust that encloses the filling.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and suet so they form a workable dough.

The step that matters

Cutting a vent in the crust after boiling. The sealed pudding builds steam pressure as it cooks. A small hole releases that pressure, so the crust does not burst open.

“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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