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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding of suet, crushed crackers, sugar, citron, raisins, eggs, spices, brandy and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine suet, crushed crackers, sugar, citron, raisins, eggs, brandy and wine mixture, milk, flour, mixed spices, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  3. Divide the mixture into small puddings.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the puddings for 5 hours.

  2. When ready to serve, steam for an additional hour.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the puddings moist and rich as they steam.
Crackers
Crumbs soak up liquid and give the pudding its body in place of flour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set the pudding structure as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to the pudding's flavor and browning.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter.

The step that matters

Steam the puddings for 5 hours. Steaming gently and steadily for the full time cooks the eggs and crumbs through and softens the suet. Letting the water boil dry or cutting the time short can leave the puddings dense or undercooked in the centre.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, brandy, wine, milk, flour):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Apricotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, brandy, wine, milk, flour. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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