I can take no credit for the recipe, only for being lucky enough to have discovered from it that you can indeed, and very successfully with minimum hassle, cook a truly mouthwatering S&KP in a slow cooker.
- 175g (6oz) self-raising flour
- 85g (3oz) shredded suet
- Pinch salt
- 450g (1lb) lean stewing steak, cut into cubes
- 225 (8oz) ox or lamb kidney, cut into cubes
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- Freshly milled black pepper
- Preheat the slow cooker on HIGH.
- Grease a 1litre (1 3/4pt pudding bowl (greasing is important otherwise it won’t turn out, as I discovered!)
- Mix together the flour, suet and seasoning with enough water to make a soft dough.
- Reserve 1/3 for the lid and roll out the remainder on a lightly floured surface. Use this to line the pudding basin.
- Mix together the steak, kidney, onion, salt and pepper and pack carefully into the pastry-lined pudding basin. Add 2 tbsp water. The pudding should not quite fill the bowl to allow room for the crust to rise
- Roll out the remaining pastry to make the lid. Moisten the edges of the pastry with water and press the lid into position. Cover with *greased greaseproof paper or foil.
- Put the lid on, and cook on HIGH for 6-8 hours. Resist any temptation to peep!
- Take the bowl out of the slow cooker, again using the **foil lifting strap. Remove the greaseproof paper, and turn the S&KP out onto a warmed plate.
- Serve with some vegetables that you can cook at the last moment.
- *I tore off enough to paper to allow me to fold a seam across the middle to give space for the pastry to rise, and sealed the paper down by tying string tightly round the rim.
- **Make a foil lifting strap, to avoid scalding yourself - folding a length of foil which you leave under the bowl with the ends loose at the top to lift the bowl in and out.
I originally posted the recipe on the Tom’s Barn blog, to share with our holiday cottage guests so that they too could easily enjoy this luxury dish while holidaying at Orchard Farm. It seemed exciting in a modest domestic way.
We could not understand why we were suddenly receiving thousands of extra hits on the cottages’ website each day, until I started receiving a number of enquiries from anxious cooks. Then a bit of detective work revealed that I had unwittingly contributed to an online discussion between cooks about the possibility or not of using a slow cooker successfully for a steamed pudding. Overnight I had become an online cookery expert.
It has been humbling for me to be treated as a steamed pudding cookery guru, assumed to have all the answers. I have tried my best to help with all the queries I have been consulted about…!
But do try it yourself. I guarantee you will be delighted with the result especially if like me you go for maximum impact/minimum effort cooking. (One certainly can’t say that about the accompanying photo but we’ll gloss over that for the moment!)
Do you have to use water to cook it in ?
Viv, yes you do. I am embarrassed to see I do not make this clear at all. I’d suggest filling the slow cooker pan with boiling water that comes up to at least half way up the bowl you have put the pudding in. You don’t want any water to get into the bowl, but you do need enough to not boil dry. Good luck! I think you’ll be delighted with how it turns out. Do let me know.
Hi Marion. I normally slightly cook the steak and kidney then add a gravey to flavour the meat and boil the pudding on the hob so can I still do this but cook it in the slow cooker to save me keep topping the water level up ?
Jackie, I am sure you could still slightly cook the meat first but you may find there is no need, especially if time is an issue. I have always found the result delicious, simply relying on the slow cooking to help produce beautifully cooked meat with a nice gravy. Why don’t you try it? and let me know what your verdict is. Good luck!
I have a metal pudding basin with a lid and I usually cook ingredients first before putting it in the pastry in the basin can I put this in a slow cooker and do you need any water in the bottom of the slow cooker Regards Linda
Linda, I am no expert, just a greedy person who loves cooking! However, I am sure that a tin container is fine. I am also sure you need to have water in the slow cooker, so that you are steaming rather than baking your pudding. As for the timing, there is no need to – and I never do – cook the meat, onions etc first. However, even if you do, I reckon 8 hours is still wise, because you need the suet party to cook. I honestly don’t know whether it would be okay with less time and claggy partly cooked pastry would be a pity.
Do let me know how you get on.
Can i use glass bowl ? Or metal bowl.
Jamice, hello, sorry i have been so long replying – computer problems rather than personal ones, hopefully all restored now. I think you can use any sort of bowl as long as it is safe in boiling water. I often use a special plastic pudding bowl with a fitting lid, and it works fine, although these days one is nervous of using plastic with food…
Whoopee! Typed up “leek pudding cooked in slow cooker” and the first hot was this! I grew up on leek pudding but hate using the pressure cooker. I wanted to make the suet pudding of yore now that it’s getting colder and am driving long hours on Friday and wanted something to come home to! Will definitely make this on Friday – will definitely put in my feedback.
Dorothy hello! Hope you tried this and that it went well. How did it go? It is wonderful having something good-natured and delicious waiting for you after a long day.
do you need water in the slow cooker
Yes! See my longer reply.
Does it need to be on for 8 hours or 4 if ingredients are cooked first
Linda, see my longer reply, but I think you should stick to the longer time (i.e. 8 hours).
Nice easy recipe, turned out OK, but not much gravy, next time I shall add a little more water to meat mixture, I think pressure cooking method gives better result & much quicker!
Josephine, you may well be right! The whole point of using the slow cooker was convenience for people either out all day and/or without such things as a pressure cooker! I was writing originally for guests in our holiday cottages who often were out walking in the Peak District all day and loved to come back to a hot meal in the evening. Do try using more liquid next time!
Looking forward to trying this.
I do have a pressure cooker but being disabled ( hands are badly affected) I find it heavy.
Cooking it in my s/cooker will be easier.
Suzanne, I am sure that you will find it much easier using a slow cooker. i hope you get on well!
Hi. I boil my pudding like my old fashioned Great gran in a cloth ,, spotty dick to in a pudding cloth for five hours wondering if this would work in the slow cooker ?
Susanna, I’m so sorry to have taken so long to reply. I’ve never tried boiling puddings in a cloth, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in a slow cooker, as well as anywhere else. Do let me know how you get on!
Dear Marion can i freeze this s&k pudding after cooking .
I intend to take it holiday and reheat if posable [for a treat]
Dear Brian, I am afraid I really don’t know. You’d probably need to freeze some extra gravy as well, because I fear otherwise it might akk become rather dry. Please let me know how you get on.
I followed your recipe ,6 hours in a slow cooker?it was a load of mush.I will cook it as always done1.5 in a saucepan .your recipe suet is like car board.And a waste of electricity!
I’m so sorry Kim that you had this disaster. I wonder what went wrong?
I made this last year and my husband loves it so I’ve just made it again and it’s in the slow cooker now thank you for the recipe
I’m delighted, Teressa. S&KP as we always used to call it, is still one of my all time favourites. Most men seem to love these old-fashioned things – I know my husband John did.
Can you cook day before and how would you reheat. Thanks
Marian hello. I haven’t ever tried reheating but I don’t think it would work. I imagine it would become very dry. If you try, please let me know what the result is!
How do you make a seam with the paper
Joan, I’m so sorry i have left you hanging so long about pleats in the paper.
It’s like a lot of things that seem much more complicated than they are!
The point of adding a pleat to the paper is creating some extra space for the pudding to expand.
Cut out a round of greaseproof paper, several inches bigger all round than the bowl you are using.
Fold the paper in half.
Carefully fold back the top layer until an inch or two from the actual fold
Then press this top half back, flat so now you are left with a somewhat smaller area of paper.
Open it out leaving the pleat (flattened fold) intact.
If I have left you more confused than ever, let me know and I’ll try again.
Hope this helps rather than confusing you more!
Can you use braising steak instead of stewing steak?
Yes, I’m absolutely sure you could.