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Dessert

Edinburgh Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated bread, figs, suet, sugar, milk, nutmeg, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Edinburgh Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs and suet very fine.

  2. Mix the grated bread and suet together.

Make the batter

  1. Add the chopped figs, nutmeg, and beaten egg.

  2. Stir in the milk.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil in a mold for four hours.

  2. Serve 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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Grated bread
Provides the main body and structure that holds the pudding together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender as it cooks.
Figs
Add sweetness, moisture, and a soft, jammy texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm when cooked.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the flavor.
Milk
Moistens the bread so the mixture forms a soft, even batter.

The step that matters

Boil in a mold for four hours. The mold should be sealed and the water kept gently boiling at a steady level. Sudden or uneven heat, or water leaking into the mold, makes the pudding soggy. A long, gentle cook lets the egg set and the bread and suet firm into a cohesive pudding.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

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