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Dessert

Rich Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, bread, suet, almonds, spices, eggs, milk, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Rich Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine raisins, currants, grated bread, and chopped suet in a large bowl.

  2. Add lemon peel, almonds, nutmeg, mixed spice, and candied orange peel.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and mix with milk and brandy.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture into a pudding mold and steam for 4 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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  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 it set firm as it steams.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body and structure.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture that soaks into the bread and loosens the mixture.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.. Eggs and liquid must be evenly distributed through the dry ingredients; uneven mixing leaves dry pockets or wet patches and an unevenly set pudding.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, beef, lemon, almond, nutmeg, orange):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, beef, lemon, almond, nutmeg, orange. 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

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