Skip to main content
Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A baked pudding made with suet, bread crumbs, sugar, raisins, currants, eggs, milk, molasses, citron peel, spices, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

two good-sized puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop one pound beef suet finely.

  2. Chop one pound bread crumbs finely.

  3. Combine one pound brown sugar, three pounds seeded raisins, three pounds dried currants, and nine beaten eggs.

  4. Add one-half pint sour milk and a wine glass of fruit juice.

  5. Add one-half cup New Orleans molasses, one-half pound citron, lemon and orange peel, chopped finely.

  6. Add one teaspoon spices, one nutmeg, and flour to make a stiff batter.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour batter into a greased mold.

  2. Tie a white cloth over the mold.

  3. Plunge the mold into boiling water.

  4. Boil for six hours or longer.

  5. The result yields two good-sized puddings.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1055Calories
54 gProtein
31 gFat
137 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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 United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the pudding sets.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, moist body.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavour.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavour.
Dried currants
Add tart fruit flavour and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the cloth tied and the water boiling for the full steaming time. The pudding cooks by steam and boiling water. If the water stops boiling or drops, the batter cooks unevenly and turns heavy, so the pot needs steady heat and topping up over the long boil.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, sugar, raisin, milk, egg, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, sugar, raisin, milk, egg, 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipes