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Steak or Kidney Pudding
779. If kidney, split and soak it, and season it with pepper and salt, which last is all that the steak will require; make a paste of suet, flour, and milk (see par. 738); roll it, and line a basin with some; put the kidney or steaks in, cover with paste, and pinch round the edge; tie it up in a cloth, and boil a considerable time-that is, three or four hours.
A boiled suet-crust pudding of the plainest sort, and the long boil is the point rather than a fault. The recipe leans on a paste recipe given elsewhere in the book (par. 738), so the crust proportions need filling in.
- Suet crust proportionsVictorian suet pastes commonly run about 2 parts flour to 1 part shredded beef suet by weight, bound with cold milk or water into a firm, rollable dough, though the book's own par. 738 governs here. For a 1.5-pint basin, something like 12 oz flour to 6 oz suet, a pinch of salt and roughly 7 fl oz liquid.
- Basin and liningA 1.5-pint (about 850 ml) pudding basin takes roughly a pound of steak or kidney once lined. Roll the paste to about a quarter-inch, cut a wedge out for the lid, and press the rest into a greased basin so the seams are sealed; a leaking pudding fills with water.
- The clothA floured cloth tied under the rim is the period method and still works, but pleated baking parchment under pleated foil, tied with string and given a string handle, is easier to lift and keeps water out just as well. Leave a pleat so the crust can rise.
- Boiling, not simmeringThe basin sits on a trivet or folded cloth in a deep pan, with boiling water reaching two-thirds up the side, lid on, kept at a steady rolling boil. Top up with boiling water from a kettle every 40 minutes or so -- if the level drops the pan boils dry and the crust scorches.
- Why three or four hoursThe time is set by the crust and the connective tissue, not by food safety. Suet pastry needs long, steady steam to become light rather than pasty, and skirt or chuck steak needs that long to give up its gelatine. Three hours is the minimum for a filled basin; four suits a larger one.
- Soaking the kidneyOx kidney is strong; split it, cut away the white core and fat, and soak in cold salted water or milk for an hour, changing it once. Lamb's kidneys need only halving and coring. Cut the kidney small -- it cooks to firmness long before the steak does, so pieces of about half an inch keep it from turning solid.
- Liquid in the fillingThe instruction says only to season, and the meat does produce its own gravy, but a few tablespoons of water or stock added before the lid goes on gives a wetter, more generous filling. Do not fill to the brim.
- Yield and servingA 1.5-pint pudding serves four. Turn it out onto a warmed dish or serve from the basin with a napkin round it; a jug of extra gravy is usual, since a boiled pudding rarely makes enough on its own.