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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, flour, milk, molasses, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine figs, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, salt, flour, milk, molasses, and baking powder in a large bowl and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 3 hours.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruity sweetness and moist, chewy body of the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, tender structure.
Eggs
Bind the ingredients together and help set the pudding's structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas to help the pudding rise and lighten in texture.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color and moisture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming for 3 hours. The pudding must be steamed gently and kept at a steady simmer with enough water in the pot. Steam that drops too low can leave the centre dense and undercooked, while the long, moist heat is what cooks and sets the batter.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, flour, milk, molasses. 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

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