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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, bread crumbs, sugar, butter, candied peel, nutmeg, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 407 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs finely.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped figs, bread crumbs, sugar, melted butter, candied orange peel, candied citron, grated nutmeg, and beaten eggs.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 4 hours.

  3. Serve with 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. Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavour and moist, sweet body to the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a light, soft structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist.

The step that matters

Steam for 4 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the eggs and crumbs through without drying or curdling the pudding. The mold must be sealed and the water kept topped up, since uneven heat or lost steam can leave the pudding dense or undercooked.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, bread, sugar, butter, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, bread, sugar, butter, 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 fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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