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Dessert

Plum Pudding, Christmas

A traditional Christmas dessert made with milk, eggs, suet, dried fruit, spices, molasses, cider, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Plum Pudding, Christmas

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. In a large bowl, combine milk, eggs, suet, raisins, currants, citron, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, salt, molasses, and sweet cider.

  2. Gradually add flour until you achieve a thick batter.

  3. Pour the mixture into a cloth and tie it securely, leaving room for expansion.

Cook

  1. Boil in a large pot for 8 to 10 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the thick batter together.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, color, and a rich flavor.
Milk
Moistens the batter and helps it hydrate the flour.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth. The batter expands as it heats and needs room to swell; if the cloth is tied too tightly, the pudding can burst or cook unevenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, raisin, nutmeg, allspice, clove, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, raisin, nutmeg, allspice, clove, 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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