Ruth Pinch's Beef-steak Pudding (also known as Beef-steak Pudding à la Dickens) is a traditional British recipe, based on Eliza Acton's recipe of 1845, for her classic boiled pudding of beef steak and water cooked in a rich butter crust and is an example of a recipe that features in Charles Dickens: The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Ruth Pinch's Beef-steak Pudding.
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This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Eliza Acton's 1845 volume Modern Cookery, the first classic Victorian cookbook.
Original Recipe
RUTH PINCH'S BEEF-STEAK PUDDING.
To make Ruth Pinch's celebrated pudding (known also as beef-steak pudding à la Dickens), substitute six ounces of butter for the suet in this receipt, and moisten the paste with the well-beaten yolks of four eggs, or with three whole ones, mixed with a little water; butter the basin very thickly before the paste is laid in, as the pudding is to be turned out of it for table. In all else proceed exactly as above.
Modern Redaction
This is the same beef-steak pudding as made by Ruth Pinch is Charles Dickens' The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. The recipe is recorded by Eliza Acton, a contemporary of Dickens', and this being the bicentennial year of Dickens' birth, it's only fitting that this recipe, dedicated to him in his own lifetime, is presented for the modern cook. Essentially, this is a twist on the traditional Small Beef-steak Pudding where butter is substituted for the more usual suet in making the pastry crust.
Ingredients:
500g plain flour
200g chilled butter, grated
1/ tsp salt
300ml cold water
500g tender beef steak, cubed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
150ml water
Method:
Stir together the flour, butter and salt in a bowl. Add enough of the water to bring these ingredients together as a dough. Turn about 2/3 of the dough onto a floured work surface and roll out until about 15mm thick. Use this to line the base and sides of 1l pudding basin.
Season the beef pieces with salt and black pepper then place in the pudding bowl and pour over the water. Roll the remaining dough until large enough to cover the top of the pudding. Crimp the tow pieces of dough together then cover the top of pudding with a piece of buttered paper in which a fold has been placed to allow for expansion. Tie this securely to the top of the bowl then cover everything with a double layer of kitchen foil.
Sit on a trivet or upturned plate in a large pan. Pour in boiling water until it comes half-way up the side of the pudding basin then place over the heat and continue boiling for 3 1/2 hours, until the pudding is cooked through. Check on the pudding every now and then and top-up the liquid with more boiling water as needed.
When cooked, remove the pudding from the pan and allow to cool a little. Uncover the bowl and remove the lid. Sit a serving plate on top and invert the pudding onto this. Serve hot, accompanied by boiled potatoes, green vegetables and gravy.
