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Dessert

Fruit Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, figs, bread crumbs, raisins, walnuts, spices, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and suet

  1. Chop suet and work until creamy using your hands.

  2. Chop figs and mix them into the suet.

Make the batter

  1. Soak bread crumbs in milk, then add beaten eggs, sugar, salt, and spices.

  2. Combine the mixtures and add raisins mixed with walnut pieces dredged in flour and baking powder.

Steam

  1. Turn the mixture into a buttered mold, cover, and steam for three 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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Fig + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Nutmeg + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Stale bread crumbs
Soak up milk and eggs to give the pudding its body and structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Figs
Provide fruit sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.
Walnut meats
Add crunch and nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming, helping lighten the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for three hours in a covered, buttered mold. Steaming gently cooks the batter through without drying it. The covered mold traps moisture, and the mold must be sealed well so steam does not escape and leave the pudding dense or dry.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, fig, bread, walnut, meat, milk, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, fig, bread, walnut, meat, milk, 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 fruit pudding recipes

Steamed 91Boiled 17Cold 14English 14Baked 12Tapioca 11 See all 210 →

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