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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, breadcrumbs, suet, citron, wine or brandy, sugar, milk, nutmeg, mace, 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

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks thoroughly and stir in the milk.

  2. Add all the other ingredients.

  3. Whisk the egg whites to a stiff froth and add them to the mixture.

  4. Mix well.

Boil

  1. Tie the mixture in a cloth.

  2. 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
Egg yolks and whipped whites bind the pudding and give it a light, tender lift.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding its body and structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Raisins
Provide concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly as it cooks.

The step that matters

Keeping the kettle supplied with boiling water. The pudding cooks slowly over six hours. If the water level drops or stops boiling, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy or soggy. Turning it occasionally helps it cook evenly.

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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