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Dessert

Mock Plum Pudding

A baked pudding made from stale cake crumbs, milk, egg, sugar, molasses, prunes, raisins, spices, baking soda, salt, lemon juice, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Plum Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soften the stale cake crumbs in hot milk.

  2. Add the beaten egg, sugar, molasses, stewed prunes, chopped raisins, mixed spices, baking soda, salt, lemon juice, and flour to the softened crumbs, then mix well until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Stale cake crumbs
Provide the bulk and body of the pudding, absorbing the liquid as they soften.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds dark color, sweetness and a rich, moist flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic lemon juice and molasses to lighten the texture and aid rising.
Flour
Adds structure that helps the pudding hold its shape when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and contributes to browning during baking.

The step that matters

Soften the crumbs fully in hot milk. Crumbs that stay dry will not absorb the liquid evenly, leaving dry pockets and an uneven texture after baking. Letting them soak until soft gives the batter a uniform, moist crumb.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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