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Dessert

Date Pudding

A pudding made from dates, suet, sugar, bread crumbs, eggs, nutmeg, and salt, boiled or steamed for four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 100 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Date Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop dates and suet until very fine.

  2. Add five ounces sugar, one-half pound finely grated bread crumbs, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.

Mix and cook

  1. Mix all together with two well beaten eggs.

  2. Put the mixture into a pudding mould.

  3. Boil or steam for four hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

660Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
127 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Date1 date (24g) medjool66
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Dates + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Dates + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Dates
Provide sweetness and moist, chewy body to the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Bind with the other ingredients to give the pudding its body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly.

The step that matters

Boil or steam for four hours. The long, gentle cooking sets the eggs and softens the suet and dates into a cohesive pudding. Water must be kept at a steady simmer so the pudding cooks through without drying out or becoming soggy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, sugar, bread, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Allspicefits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, sugar, bread, egg. 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 date pudding recipes

Steamed 8 See all 100 →

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