Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig Pudding

A baked pudding made with figs, sugar, eggs, bread, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop figs finely and mix with butter.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar, eggs, grated bread, and milk.

  3. Butter a mold and sprinkle it with bread crumbs.

Cook

  1. Pour the pudding mixture into the mold, cover closely, and boil for three hours.

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. Bread + buttertop 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 flavour and sweetness, and moisture that gives the pudding its body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Grated bread
Adds bulk and absorbs moisture, giving the pudding a soft, tender structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavour.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the pudding and dissolves easily into the mixture.

The step that matters

Cover the mold closely while boiling. A tight cover keeps steam trapped around the pudding so it cooks gently and stays moist over the long three-hour boil. If the lid is loose, water can enter and the pudding may turn soggy or cook unevenly.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Peachfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, bread, butter, 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 →

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes