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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, eggs, sour milk, sugar, spices, molasses, lemon extract, bread crumbs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine raisins, currants, chopped suet, eggs, sour milk, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, molasses, lemon extract, and bread crumbs.

  2. Mix in enough flour to create a stiff batter that is hard to stir.

Cook

  1. Place the mixture in a greased cloth about 2 feet square and tie it, leaving enough room for the pudding to rise.

  2. Boil the pudding for 6 hours.

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. Allspice + clovetop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender during long cooking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the batter body.

The step that matters

Leave room in the cloth for the pudding to rise. The batter expands as the baking soda and sour milk react and as the pudding heats. If the cloth is tied too tightly, the pudding cannot swell and may become dense or burst the cloth.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, egg, milk, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, 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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