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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed plum pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, flour, sugar, preserved citrus, spices, brandy, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate the rind of one lemon.

  2. Mix 1 lb. preserved lemon and orange peel.

Mix and steam

  1. Pour the milk over the crumbs.

  2. Mix in the order given.

  3. Steam six hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

251Calories
15 gProtein
14 gFat
18 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Brandynot in our table0
Puddingnot in our table0

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

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  2. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

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

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 they set during steaming.
Milk
Moistens the crumbs and keeps the pudding soft and tender.
Brandy
Adds a rich, warming aroma and flavour.
Mixed spices
Give the pudding its warm, aromatic flavour.

The step that matters

Steam for the full six hours. Gentle, prolonged moist heat cooks the eggs and crumbs evenly through, so the pudding sets firm and moist rather than raw in the centre or stodgy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, milk, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, milk, nutmeg, 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.

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