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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed or boiled pudding made with molasses, suet, milk, flour, eggs, figs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix together molasses, suet, spices, and finely chopped figs.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in 1 tablespoon of hot water and mix it with the milk.

  3. Add the milk mixture to the other ingredients.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and stir them into the mixture.

  5. Add the flour and beat well until combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a mold and steam for 5 hours or boil for 3 hours.

  2. Serve hot with foamy wine sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Nutmeg + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and a rich, deep flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the pudding and help it rise.
Figs
Add fruity sweetness and moist, chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before mixing. Baking soda must be fully dissolved in the hot water before it meets the milk and batter, so it reacts evenly and the pudding rises uniformly rather than developing dense or bitter pockets.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Blueberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More fig pudding recipes

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