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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, bread crumbs, suet, citron, wine or brandy, sugar, milk, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs thoroughly and stir in the milk.

  2. Add all the other ingredients, leaving the egg whites to be whisked to a stiff froth and added last.

  3. Mix well and tie the mixture in a cloth.

Boil

  1. Boil for 6 hours, turning the pudding occasionally and keeping the kettle supplied with boiling water.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, giving the pudding structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding its body and crumb.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the suet and eggs.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and eggs so the mixture forms a soft batter.

The step that matters

Keeping the kettle supplied with boiling water. Boiling water must be topped up so the pudding stays at a steady, high heat for the whole six hours. If the water level or boil drops, cooking slows and the pudding can turn out heavy or unevenly cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, wine, sugar, milk, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, wine, sugar, milk, nutmeg, egg. 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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