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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, candied peel, almonds, suet, bread crumbs, spices, sugar, eggs, and coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix the suet with the bread crumbs in a large bowl.

  2. Add the raisins, candied peels, almonds, lemon rind, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar.

  3. Stir in the beaten eggs and then add the strong coffee.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold.

  2. Steam for three hours.

  3. Serve with a hard sauce.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  5. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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 during steaming.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft crumb.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture while contributing a caramel note.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for three hours. Steaming must be gentle and steady so the eggs set and the suet melts without the pudding turning dense or soggy. Keep the water topped up so the pudding cooks evenly through.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, orange, almond, bread, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Cherryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, orange, almond, bread, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar. 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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