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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A pudding made from figs, bread crumbs, eggs, suet, milk, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered tin mold with a tight cover.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 3 hours.

  2. Serve hot with wine 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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main body, sweetness and fruity flavour of the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Powdered suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Milk
Adds moisture so the crumbs and eggs combine into a soft batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the figs.

The step that matters

Keep the mold tightly covered while boiling. A tight cover traps steam so the pudding cooks through evenly and stays moist. If steam escapes, the water can seep in or the pudding can dry out, so check that the lid seals well before boiling.

Swap the fig

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

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

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