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Dessert

England Plum Pudding, Unrivalled

A steamed plum pudding made with raisins, currants, sultanas, suet, candied peel, spices, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

England Plum Pudding, Unrivalled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Stir and cut the raisins, but do not chop them.

  2. Wash and dry the currants, and cut the candied peel into thin slices.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients well together.

  2. Beat and strain the eggs, then moisten the mixture with them.

  3. Stir in the brandy until thoroughly mixed.

  4. Butter and flour a stout pudding cloth, then place the pudding mixture inside.

  5. Tie the cloth tightly and boil for 6 to 8 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with brandy or hard sauce, and garnish with blanched almonds cut into strips.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 add richness and structure as they set during boiling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Muscatel raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps give it a tender, moist crumb.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour and helps keep the pudding moist.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth tightly and boil for 6 to 8 hours. A tight cloth keeps the pudding compact and stops water from soaking in, while steady boiling cooks the eggs and crumbs through evenly. Too little water or heat can leave the centre heavy and undercooked.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, bread, egg, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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