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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, almonds, flour, bread crumbs, citrus peel, nutmeg, sugar, eggs, cream, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine raisins, currants, suet, almonds, flour, bread crumbs, citron, orange peel, lemon peel, nutmeg, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Moisten the mixture with beaten eggs, cream, wine, and brandy. Mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth and tie securely.

  2. Boil in a large pot of water for 10 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 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

Eggs
Bind the dry ingredients and set the pudding firm as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dense pudding together.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquids and lighten the texture of the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy body throughout the pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and moisture while helping preserve the pudding.

The step that matters

Securing the pudding cloth. If the cloth is not tied tightly, water can seep into the pudding during the long boil, making it soggy and diluting its flavour. Leave room for the pudding to expand slightly so the cloth does not burst.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, almond, flour, bread, orange, lemon, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Cranberryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, almond, flour, bread, orange, lemon, 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.

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