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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pudding mix

  1. Soak two five-cent loaves of baker's bread in one quart of milk.

  2. Mix the soaked bread with two pounds of chopped suet, one quart of flour, two pounds of raisins (stoned), two pounds of currants, one half pound of citron, three to six eggs, one and one half cups of sugar, and spices (ground clove, cinnamon, nutmeg).

  3. Steam the mixture for 12 hours or more.

Make the bread layer

  1. Cut a large loaf of baker's bread into slices, remove the crusts, and butter the slices.

  2. Layer the sliced bread and raisins alternately in a dish.

  3. Beat eggs, sugar, and spices with enough milk to cover the bread.

  4. Soak the layered bread overnight, adding more milk in the morning to cover the bread.

  5. Place a plate over the bread while soaking.

Bake

  1. Bake for three to three and a half hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

812Calories
28 gProtein
16 gFat
139 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
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
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7

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

By Ladies' Benevolent Society, First Congregational Church (Fall River, Mass .). Ladies' Benevolent Society, Mass.) First Congregational Church (Fall River. 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and moisture, giving the steamed pudding a tender, rich texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during cooking, giving the pudding structure.
Flour
Gives the pudding body and structure as it steams.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture as they plump during soaking and cooking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning during baking.
Bread
Soaks up milk to create a moist, tender crumb throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming the mixture for a long time. Steaming for 12 hours or more needs steady, gentle heat and enough water in the pot. If the water boils dry or the heat drops, the pudding can turn out dense or uneven.

Swap the currant

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

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

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