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Christmas Pudding

A steamed pudding made with condensed milk, water, eggs, crackers, nuts, spices, raisins, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Dilute the condensed milk with water.

  2. Beat the eggs until light, then mix with half of the milk.

  3. Gradually stir in the crumbled crackers.

  4. Add the chopped nuts, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and raisins.

  5. Mix in the remaining milk.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and steam for six hours.

  2. Serve with vanilla 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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 help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding as it steams.
Crackers
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding its body and texture.
Condensed milk
Adds sweetness and richness, and moisture to the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Nuts
Add crunch and a toasty, rich flavor against the soft batter.

The step that matters

Steam for six hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the eggs and starches through without drying the pudding. Letting the water boil dry or running the pot too hard can leave the pudding dense or uneven, so the mold needs a steady, covered simmer for the full time.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against condensed milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, raisin. 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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