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Dessert

Fig Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 the batter

  1. Chop the figs into very small pieces and mix with butter.

  2. Add bread crumbs, flour, and sugar to the fig mixture.

  3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then add them with a little milk to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and boil for three hours.

  2. Serve with sweet 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 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 body, sweetness and moist, chewy texture of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and absorb moisture, giving the pudding a tender body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing softness and flavour to the pudding.
Flour
Adds structure, helping the pudding hold its shape after boiling.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a buttered mold and boil for three hours. The mold must be well buttered so the pudding releases cleanly. Boiling must be steady and the mold kept covered and sealed, so the pudding cooks through gently and does not dry out or turn watery.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figthe original
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, milk, butter, flour, 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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