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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, suet, milk, flour, eggs, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chopped figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, chopped suet, and milk.

  2. Add flour, eggs, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and chopped figs. Mix well.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for about 2 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Nutmeg + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and a deep, rich flavor to the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together after steaming.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Figs
Add chewy texture and natural fruit sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam must be kept steady and the mold sealed so the pudding cooks gently and evenly. Too little water or heat lets the pudding turn dense or underdone in the centre.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, 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.

More fig pudding recipes

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