Original Receipt in 'A Shilling Cookery for The People' by Alexis Soyer (Soyer 1845);234. Beef Pudding - Take about one pound of steak, cut it lengthways in three pieces, and then slantways at each inch, instead of in lumps; hut should you buy cuttings of meat from the butchers, then remove all the sinew and over fat, and cut the large pieces slantways, put them in a dish, and sprinkle over with a teaspoonful of salt, a half ditto of pepper, and a tea- spoonful of flour, the same of chopped onions; mix well together, make six or eight ounces of paste as No. 319, roll it to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, or a little more, put pudding-cloth in a basin, sprinkle some flour over it, lay in your paste, and then the meat, together with a few pieces of fat; when full put in three wineglasses of water; turn the paste over the meat, so as not to form a lump, but well closed; then tie the cloth, not too close on the paste, or it will not he light; boil it fast in four quarts of water for one hour; take it out, let it stand a few minutes to cool the cloth, cut the string, turn back the cloth, place a dish on the top, and turn it over on it, remove tho cloth, and serve.
235 - If you choose to add a kidney it may add to the richness of the gravy, also a few oysters, or even a mushroom. The crust should always be cut with a knife.
If you carefully follow the above instructions yon will have a pudding quite perfect, the paste as light and as white as snow, and the meat tender, with a thick gravy.
236.-Observation. You will perhaps be surprised that I recommend it to be boiled fast instead of simmering. I do so, because the meat, being enclosed in the paste, and sometimes in a basin, is alone subject to the action of simmering in its own gravy. These puddings lose a less amount of nourishment in cooking than any other kind. In a large pudding a few sliced potatoes is not bad. This may truly l:c considered as much n national dish as roast beef and plum pudding, and being so, it is surprising that it is so often made badly, and indigestible: the pieces of meat and fat often cut two inches square, instead of smaller pieces; the pudding, sometimes left half out of this water, the crust becomes hard and black, and the moat very dry.