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Dessert

White Plum Pudding

A boiled or steamed pudding of butter, sugar, eggs, flour, citron, raisins and currants, served with a wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

White Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Beat the eggs, then add sugar, butter, salt and milk.

  2. Stir all into the flour in which the fruit has been mixed.

  3. Just before cooking, stir in the baking powder.

  4. Boil or steam for 2 hours.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Make a sauce of butter, sugar, flour and wine to a cream consistency.

  2. Serve hot with the sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

746Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
124 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  3. Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,856 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 as they set when cooked.
Baking powder
Releases gas when moistened and heated, lifting the pudding as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Flour (in the method)
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sauce become smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking powder just before cooking. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is moistened and heated. If it sits in the batter too long, much of that gas escapes before the pudding sets, so it rises less.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, 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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