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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, flour, spices, candied peel, sugar, eggs, brandy, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, flour, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, candied peel, and sugar in a large bowl.

  2. Add the eggs and brandy, mixing well.

  3. If the mixture is too soft, add a little milk.

  4. Butter a pudding mold and pour in the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding for 2 hours.

  2. Serve with wine sauce and sprinkle a little sugar on top.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 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 the pudding set as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft crumb.
Flour
Adds structure so the mixture holds its shape when boiled.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the fruit and spices.

The step that matters

If the mixture is too soft, add a little milk.. Too much liquid makes the pudding loose and heavy once boiled, while the right consistency holds its shape in the mold. Add milk only in small amounts, checking the texture as you go.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, beef, bread, flour, ginger, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, bread, flour, ginger, allspice, nutmeg. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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