Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

Steak and Kidney Pudding

In another place, Charlie asked:

I’m afraid that suet is a home-made thing. Luckily, that’s one of the things I learned to make when I was learning to be a butcher, along with real live lard. But wtf is a steak and kidney pudding?

…which pressed me to write this explanation, now blogged with enhancements:

In British cooking terminology the term “pudding” has a dual and somewhat flexible meaning:

  1. a post-meal dessert of some sort

  2. a floury / bread-like / freestanding-but-contained-in-a-bag-or-bowl recipe that is prepared most often by boiling or steaming.

…my presumed reason for the overlap being that so many traditional British desserts are prepared by the latter method; note also though that this does leave open the possibility of savory puddings.

Beatrix Potter fans (who I suspect are about to see an upswing in interest leading to subsequent commercial revival and debasement of my childhood memories, cf: Milne’s Disneyfication) – should be aware of the concept from The Roly-Poly Pudding – almost certainly a candidate for future butchery Americanizificaioning.

Also those who Scotsophiles know their Robert Burns will know that Haggis is the “Chieftain of the puddin’-race”, but south of the border, here in the civilised land that is England – or at least in this small corner of Hampshire – S&K is king.

Rick Stein’s S&K is one of the best, and I do a mean sub-version. The suet pastry is rolled 3/4″ thick and fit to line the inside of a Pyrex bowl, and laden with meat and kidney and onion, then capped with another layer of suet pastry, then covered with a drumhead of muslin strung taut around the bowl.

Four hours of steaming the bowl upon a trivet in a huge pan, a snip and a quick inversion onto a plate, and you are left with a tidy bowl-shaped object, pallid with the odd hint of tan. Slice it quickly open and the hermetically sealed and slightly pressure-cooked meat and magically-produced thick gravy ooze out, and the thick, fluffy white pastry obviates any need for potatoes. Have peas or green beans on the side, I would, or perhaps boiled carrots.

Follow with a bread-n-butter pudding, you want the Gary Rhodes recipe and need a blowtorch for that. Google will probably find it.

Edit: See also this tract on suet and puddings, using non-shredded stuff may affect recipes.

⊞

Comments

7 responses to “Steak and Kidney Pudding”

  1. Charlie (Colorado)
    re: Steak and Kidney Pudding

    Okay, so this thing ends up sounding like a giant bao or steamed dumpling. Right?

    Reply
  2. alecm
    re: Steak and Kidney Pudding

    Have amended the original posting to contain a link to the Atora website.

    Reply
  3. alecm
    re: Steak and Kidney Pudding

    Steamed dumplings in my experience still have a certain “clumpiness” in texture, as opposed to the smoothness of rolled, kneaded pastry.

    Also, the above describe pudding is a hemisphere of 9″ diameter or so.

    But there are certainly similarities. 🙂

    Reply
  4. weez
    re: Steak and Kidney Pudding

    Very good. I like steak and kidney pud. Unlike Frank, who very rudely calls it ‘pork bowel pie.’ Anyway, suet, I think, is a very good thing. A health food, in fact. One that can safely be served in the restaurants of NYC, even after their recent trans-fat ban. Let’s hear it for cholesterol. In that vein, I celebrated by going out and buying a pound of nice, non-hydrogenated lard for my next pastry making spree. Am hoping that McDonald’s will reconsider itself and go back to same for its french fries and particularly its hot apple pies, which I remember (as a young person, admittedly) being deliciously hot, crispy and greasy, but which are now reminiscent of two slabs of soggy cardboard with some lukewarm apple flavored library paste in between . . .

    Reply
  5. Weez
    re: Steak and Kidney Pudding

    And another thing . . . 30 or so odd years ago, we were visited by Christopher Hanson Smith and his wife, who at the time lived at Hill Top farm or one of the Beatrix Potter homes, active in the preservation, and now author of several books, on BP(www.beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/files/publications.html). Things were not so good in Potter world at that time. Very little money, place going to rack and ruin, etc. Mother sent him home with a dozen pages torn out of the Sears catalog, featuring (what else) Winnie the Pooh, saying ‘look at this. . .can’t you do something like this.” I have no idea if this formed the basis for the subsequent marketing of rather tasteful Peter Rabbit figurines, cross-stitch kits and nursery paraphernalia (sp?), but I say–go for it! Anything that gets people to read the books can’t be a bad thing in my opinion. And as for movies, think “Lord of the Rings” and the WETA workshop. Peter Rabbit on the big screen might be a great thing . . . .

    Reply
  6. Weez
    re: Steak and Kidney Pudding

    And another thing . . . 30 or so odd years ago, we were visited by Christopher Hanson Smith and his wife, who at the time lived at Hill Top farm or one of the Beatrix Potter homes, active in the preservation, and now author of several books, on BP(www.beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/files/publications.html). Things were not so good in Potter world at that time. Very little money, place going to rack and ruin, etc. Mother sent him home with a dozen pages torn out of the Sears catalog, featuring (what else) Winnie the Pooh, saying ‘look at this. . .can’t you do something like this.” I have no idea if this formed the basis for the subsequent marketing of rather tasteful Peter Rabbit figurines, cross-stitch kits and nursery paraphernalia (sp?), but I say–go for it! Anything that gets people to read the books can’t be a bad thing in my opinion. And as for movies, think “Lord of the Rings” and the WETA workshop. Peter Rabbit on the big screen might be a great thing . . . .

    Reply
  7. BRIAN CRONSHAW

    does anyone know where i can purchase steak puddings in the u.s.a.?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts