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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed or baked dessert made with crackers, milk, raisins, eggs, spices, sugar, molasses, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Plum Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Butter a deep pudding pan well.

Make and bake

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared pudding pan.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 4 to 5 hours, covering with a tin cover after baking for a while to keep the top tender.

  4. Let cool before serving.

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.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  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

Common crackers
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softens the crackers into a custard-like texture.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color and sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Covering the pan after baking for a while. Baking uncovered at first lets the top develop color, then the cover slows surface drying and keeps the top tender while the center cooks through over the long bake.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, sugar, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, sugar, molasses. 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.

More plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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