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Dessert

Real English Christmas Plum Pudding

A steamed dessert made with suet, dried fruit, spices, eggs, brandy, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Real English Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet finely.

  2. In a large bowl, combine suet, raisins, currants, chopped apple, orange and lemon peel, lemon and orange juice and zest.

  3. Add flour, bread-crumbs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and mix well.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add to the mixture along with the brandy and milk. Stir until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.

Steam and store

  1. Cover and steam for 6 hours, ensuring the water does not boil dry.

  2. Let cool, then store in a cool place until ready to serve.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  3. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 add structure and richness as the pudding sets.
Flour
Provides the body and structure that holds the pudding together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during steaming.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the fruit and spices.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew and moisture to the pudding.
Bread-crumbs
Absorb liquid and add soft texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming with enough water. If the water boils dry during the long steam, the pudding can scorch and dry out. Keeping the water topped up maintains steady, gentle heat around the mold so the pudding cooks through evenly and stays moist.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, apple, orange, lemon, flour, bread, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, apple, orange, lemon, flour, bread, sugar. 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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