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Beefsteak Pudding

A baked pudding made with suet crust, steak, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, pepper, salt, cayenne, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,719 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Prepare a good suet crust and line a cake tin with it.

  2. Layer in steak, chopped onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and cayenne.

  4. Add ½ cup of water before closing the tin.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet crust
Forms a sturdy, tender case that holds the filling and steams during baking.
Steak
Provides the main meat filling, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in the steam.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and moisture to the filling as they soften.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that blend into the juices of the filling.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling as they cook.

The step that matters

Add ½ cup of water before closing the tin.. The water turns to steam during the long bake, moistening the filling and helping the meat become tender. Too little liquid can leave the steak dry and tough.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mushroom, 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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