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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A sweet pudding made from scrap, spices, glucose, raisins, currants, citron, almonds, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Dissolve and strain the scrap.

  2. Add cinnamon, ground cloves, ground allspice, and glucose.

  3. Cook the mixture to 242°F (117°C).

  4. Pour the mixture onto a slab.

Add fruit and form

  1. Add raisins, currants, sliced citron, and chopped almonds.

  2. Stir in the brandy and cream it immediately.

  3. Knead the mixture well.

Portion and wrap

  1. Weigh off small balls of 4 oz. each.

  2. Roll each piece in a piece of wax paper.

  3. Place each ball in a paper napkin, fold the corners, and tie with a narrow ribbon.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Adds sweetness and helps keep the mass moist and smooth by limiting sugar crystals.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Chopped almonds
Add crunch and a nutty texture against the soft mass.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a little moisture to the mixture.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture to 242°F (117°C). The final temperature sets how much water remains and how much sugar is concentrated. Undercooking leaves the mass soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle once it cools.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, allspice, raisin, almond, brandy):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, allspice, raisin, almond, brandy. 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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