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Dessert

Scotch Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, sugar, lemon, bread, milk, eggs, and flavored with red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scotch Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the figs

  1. Wash and soak the figs.

  2. Combine sugar, grated lemon rind, lemon juice, and water in a saucepan.

  3. Boil the mixture for a few minutes.

  4. Add the figs and stew until tender.

Assemble the pudding

  1. Butter a pudding dish well.

  2. Split the soaked figs to line the basin.

  3. Chop the remaining figs.

  4. Place chopped figs in a basin with diced bread, sugar, and the rest of the grated lemon rind.

  5. Boil the milk and pour it over the mixture in the basin.

  6. Beat the eggs and add them with any desired flavoring to the basin.

  7. Pour the mixture into the pudding dish.

  8. Cover with greased paper or a pudding cloth.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1 hour.

  2. Turn out onto a hot dish.

  3. Serve with a sauce made by boiling down the fig stewing water and adding red currant jelly.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavor and soft, moist body to the pudding.
Bread
Soaks up the milk and eggs, giving the pudding a soft, set crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it steams.
Milk
Moistens the bread and adds richness to the custard-like texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the lemon.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and acidity to the serving sauce.

The step that matters

Steam for 1 hour. Steaming gently at a steady simmer sets the eggs and bread into a tender pudding. Heat that is too high or too low can leave it watery or dense.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar, lemon, butter, bread, milk, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, lemon, butter, bread, milk, egg. 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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