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Dessert

Baked English Plum Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Baked English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pudding

  1. Combine three pints of new milk, one pound of bread crumbs, one cup of brown sugar, a fourth of a pound of suet chopped fine, six eggs, one pound of raisins, a half pound of dried currants, a fourth of a pound of citron, two tablespoons of cinnamon, one teaspoon of cloves, and the grated peel of one lemon.

  2. Bake for three hours.

  3. Rest the pudding the day before serving and warm over.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, and one tea-spoon of vanilla.

  2. Beat the mixture until very light.

  3. Grate nutmeg over the top.

Make the second mixture and boil

  1. Combine one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, a half pound of suet chopped fine, six eggs, a pint of sweet milk, two teaspoons of cream tartar, one teaspoon of soda, and enough flour to make it like fruit cake.

  2. Boil for three hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

983Calories
29 gProtein
32 gFat
144 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

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

By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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 as they set during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the pudding a soft, body-filled texture.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Cream tartar
Acts with soda to lift the batter and help it rise.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, raisin, cinnamon, clove, sugar, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, raisin, cinnamon, clove, sugar, butter. 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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