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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A sweet pudding made with sugar, glucose, molasses, sweet cream, currants, raisins, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. Combine sugar, glucose, molasses, and 1 cup of sweet cream in a pot.

  2. Boil until it reaches the medium ball stage.

  3. Add the remaining 1 cup of sweet cream just before the mixture is done.

  4. Stir in the butter.

  5. Continue boiling until it reaches the medium ball stage again.

Finish and set

  1. Remove from heat and stir until it begins to thicken.

  2. Fold in the currants, raisins, and spices.

  3. Pour the mixture into a small bread tin lined with waxed paper.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when boiled, sets into a firm, chewy mass.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystals, keeping the mixture smooth and tender rather than grainy.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, creamier texture.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, deep flavour and moisture.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling to the medium ball stage. Sugar candy firms as its temperature rises and water boils off. Stopping short leaves the pudding soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. The second boil matters most for the final texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, molasses, raisin, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, molasses, raisin, butter, cinnamon, 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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