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Dessert

New England Quick Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with milk, crackers, sugar, eggs, butter, raisins, nutmeg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

New England Quick Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Scald the milk and pour it over the rolled crackers.

  2. Cover and let stand until cool.

  3. Add the sugar, beaten eggs, nutmeg, salt, melted butter, and raisins; stir well.

Bake

  1. Turn the mixture into a buttered pudding dish and set it in a pan of boiling water.

  2. Bake for 2.5 to 3 hours, stirring gently after the first half hour to prevent the raisins from settling.

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 + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a custard-like pudding as it bakes.
Rolled crackers
Soak up the hot milk and form the soft body of the pudding.
Milk
Softens the crackers and supplies liquid that cooks into a creamy custard.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender, moist texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the pudding's surface.
Raisins
Provide chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Bake in a water bath with gentle stirring. The pan of boiling water shields the custard from harsh direct heat, so it cooks gently and stays smooth. Stirring after the first half hour keeps the heavier raisins from sinking to the bottom before the eggs and crackers set.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

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