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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A traditional British plum pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, candied peel, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, brown sugar, candied peels, nutmeg, ginger, mixed spice, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs separately, whisking the whites to a froth. Mix the beaten eggs into the dry ingredients until well combined.

  3. If the mixture is too dry, add one or two more eggs.

Shape and wrap

  1. Grease a pudding mold or bowl and fill it with the mixture.

  2. Grease a plate and place it upside down on top of the mold.

  3. Dip a pudding cloth in boiling water, dredge it with flour, and tie it securely around the mold.

Boil and serve

  1. Prepare a large pot of boiling water and carefully lower the pudding in, ensuring it is covered with water. Keep a kettle of boiling water nearby to replenish as needed.

  2. Boil for 6 hours the first day, then 2 hours before serving.

  3. Before untying the cloth, plunge the pudding into cold water to prevent sticking.

  4. Dust with powdered sugar before serving and enjoy with 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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dry ingredients together and add structure as the pudding sets.
Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender during long steaming.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a light, crumbly body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep molasses flavor.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Wrapping and keeping the water boiling. The cloth must be tied securely and the pot kept at a full boil with the pudding fully submerged. Water that drops or cools slows cooking and can leave the pudding heavy and wet inside.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Cranberryfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, bread, sugar, lemon, orange, nutmeg. 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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