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Beefsteak Pudding

A steamed pudding made with beef steak, kidney, biscuit dough, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Season the meat with celery salt, coarse sea salt, and pepper.

  2. Grease a baking dish and line it with biscuit dough.

Assemble and cook

  1. Fill the dish with the seasoned meat and cover with more biscuit dough.

  2. Steam for 4 to 8 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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Biscuit + celerytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round steak
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during long, moist cooking.
Beef kidney
Adds rich, savory flavor and body to the filling.
Biscuit dough
Forms the pastry crust that encloses the filling and absorbs its juices as it steams.

The step that matters

Steam for 4 to 8 hours. Long, gentle steaming breaks down the connective tissue in the steak and kidney so the meat turns tender rather than tough. Keeping the steam steady and the dish covered helps the meat cook evenly without drying out.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, biscuit, pepper):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, biscuit, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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