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Beefsteak and Kidney Pudding

A pudding made with beefsteak and kidney pieces encased in a suet crust and boiled.

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 the filling

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

  2. Make a suet crust by mixing 6 ounces of suet with 1 pound of flour and enough milk to form a dough.

  3. Line a dish with the suet crust, leaving some overhanging.

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

  5. Continue layering steak, kidney, and seasoning until the dish is full.

  6. Pour in enough water to come within 2 inches of the top of the dish.

Cover and boil

  1. Moisten the edges of the crust, cover the pudding, and press the edges together to seal.

  2. Flour a cloth, tie it around the pudding, and place it in boiling water.

  3. Boil for at least 4 hours, replenishing with hot water as needed.

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

Serve

  1. Serve the pudding in the basin or on a decorative dish.

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 main meaty body and savoury flavour of the filling.
Kidneys
Add a rich, distinctive savoury flavour to the filling.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and moist as it cooks.
Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the crust together.

The step that matters

Sealing the crust before boiling. Moisten the edges and press them firmly together so no water seeps into the pudding. A poor seal lets the filling become soggy and the crust loosen while it boils.

“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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