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Beefsteak Pudding

A boiled or steamed pudding made with sliced beefsteak, suet paste, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beefsteak into thin slices, about 3 inches long and wide.

  2. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper on a plate.

  3. Dip each slice in the mixture.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Roll out the suet paste to fit a well-greased basin.

  2. Reserve a quarter of the suet paste for the lid.

  3. Line the basin with the suet paste.

  4. Add the sliced beefsteak to the basin.

  5. Sprinkle the remaining seasoning between layers.

  6. Leave spaces for water to prevent the pudding from drying out.

  7. Fill the basin three-quarters full with boiling water.

Cover and cook

  1. Cover the basin and seal the edges of the basin.

  2. If boiling, tie a scalded and floured pudding cloth over the basin.

  3. If steaming, cover the basin with greased paper.

  4. Ensure the water is boiling.

  5. Cook for about 3.5 hours by boiling or 4 hours by steaming.

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 + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 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

Beefsteak
Provides the meat that becomes tender during long, gentle cooking in steam or water.
Suet paste
Fat-rich pastry that stays moist and tender while enclosing the filling and keeping it from drying.
Flour
Coats the beef slices, helping them brown slightly and thickening the juices around them.

The step that matters

Ensure the water is boiling. Boiling water delivers steady, intense heat to the basin. If the water cools or only simmers, the pudding cooks slowly and unevenly, and the pastry can turn heavy and the meat dry.

“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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