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Beef-steak Pudding

A pudding made from sliced beef, kidneys, oysters, and seasoned with pepper, salt, shallot, and flavored with beef gravy and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef-steak Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the beef until tender, then cut it into thin slices.

  2. Slice the kidneys and oysters, and combine them with the beef.

  3. Season the mixture with pepper, salt, and minced shallot.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the mixture for 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Prepare strong beef gravy and flavor it with mushroom ketchup.

  3. Make a hole in the pudding paste and pour the gravy into it.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak
Becomes tender when beaten and supplies the main meaty body of the filling.
Kidneys
Add a rich, savory, slightly mineral flavor to the filling.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory note that deepens the flavor of the filling.
Strong beef gravy
Supplies moisture and concentrated beef flavor to the finished pudding.
Pudding paste
Forms the enclosing crust that holds the filling and gravy during boiling.

The step that matters

Making the hole in the pudding paste. The gravy is poured in after the paste is opened, so the pudding stays moist inside. Pouring it in carelessly can spill it or let the crust tear, leaving the filling dry or the paste soggy.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, oyster, pepper, beef, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, oyster, pepper, beef, mushroom, ketchup. 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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