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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, bread crumbs, suet, eggs, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in the sweet milk.

  2. Add the lightly beaten eggs, sugar, salt, suet, and minced figs.

  3. Beat the mixture for three minutes.

  4. Pour into buttered molds with a tight top.

Steam and serve

  1. Set the molds in boiling water with a weight on top and boil for three hours.

  2. Serve hot with hard 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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the pudding its body and soft, tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Dried figs
Provide the main flavor and natural sweetness, plus chewy texture.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the suet.

The step that matters

Keep the molds sealed and boil steadily. A tight top keeps steam from escaping and lets the pudding cook through evenly. Water that drops below a steady boil slows cooking and can leave the center dense or underdone, so the water should be kept at a steady boil for the full three hours.

Swap the fig

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

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

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

More fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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