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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, sugar, breadcrumbs, suet, eggs, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 374 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped figs and cut off the hard ends.

  2. Stir in the bread crumbs.

  3. Beat the eggs and sugar together, then mix with the figs and bread crumbs.

  4. Add the baking powder and mix well.

  5. Grease a mold and pour the mixture into it.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold and plunge it into a large pot of boiling water.

  2. Let it boil for three hours.

  3. Serve hot with liquid or hard 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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  4. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

  5. Fig + beeftop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together116 recipes

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

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 moisture and sweetness throughout the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a soft, bound body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking to lighten the pudding's texture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.

The step that matters

Keeping the mold submerged while it boils. The pudding cooks gently by steam and hot water through the mold. If the water level drops or boils away, the pudding dries out and cooks unevenly over the long three-hour boil.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figthe original
  4. Pumpkinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, beef, 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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