Why it works: Meat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,529 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Meat Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
Boil a saucepan of water before starting.
Mix suet, flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
Add enough cold water to form a stiff paste.
Cut off one-third of the paste for the cover.
Roll the remaining paste into a circle twice the size of the basin.
Fill and cover
Grease the basin and line it with the rolled paste.
Cut the meat into slices, season with pepper and salt, and fill the basin.
Pour in a little water and wet the edges of the paste.
Roll out the cover to fit, place it on top, and press the edges together.
Trim the edges neatly.
Boil
Dip a cloth in boiling water, flour it, and tie it securely over the basin.
Boil the pudding in the water for 2.5 hours.
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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Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,529 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
- Suet
- Melts during boiling to keep the paste moist and rich.
- Flour
- Forms the paste and sets into the structure of the pudding crust.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the paste, helping it rise and lighten as it cooks.
- Meat
- Forms the savoury filling, becoming tender during long simmering.
- Kidney
- Adds rich, deep flavour and body to the filling.
The step that matters
Press the cover edges together and tie the cloth securely. A poor seal lets water seep into the filling and steam escape, leaving the pudding soggy or dry. Tying the cloth snugly keeps the pudding's shape and protects it in the boiling water.
“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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