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Prune Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, prunes, molasses, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Prune Pudding

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 ↓

Prune Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the finely chopped suet and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the chopped prunes, sweet milk, molasses, and dissolved baking soda.

  4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered molds.

  2. Steam for three hours.

  3. Serve with foamy 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
Prunes
Contribute sweetness, moisture, and a dense, fruity body.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a deep, caramel-like flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter and help it rise.

The step that matters

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture until well combined. Mixing until just combined keeps the batter tender; overworking develops gluten in the flour, which can make the pudding tough and dense.

“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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