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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, raisins, molasses, bread crumbs, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and raisin work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in 1 pint of milk for 30 minutes.

  2. Mix the soaked bread crumbs with figs, suet, raisins, molasses, eggs, and baking soda.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a covered bowl.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Serve with 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. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  2. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a deep, dark flavor.
Figs
Provide sweetness, chewy texture, and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the egg-and-crumb mixture through without drying it out. Let the water keep simmering so the pudding stays moist and evenly set.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, beef, molasses, bread, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, beef, molasses, bread, egg, milk. 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 fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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