Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Fruit Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Mince the figs small.
In a large bowl, combine figs, suet, brown sugar, bread crumbs, milk, orange peel, eggs, cinnamon, and ginger. Mix well until fully combined.
Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.
Cook and serve
Boil for 5 hours in a pot of water.
Serve with sauce.
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.
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Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,437 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,833 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together614 recipes
Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
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Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together407 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help set the pudding as it cooks.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb the milk and give the pudding body and a soft crumb.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
- Figs
- Provide sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavour.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a molasses note to the pudding.
The step that matters
Boiling the pudding. The mold must stay submerged in steadily simmering water for the full time. If the water drops or boils too hard, the pudding cooks unevenly or leaks, and the eggs and crumbs may not set properly.
Swap the orange
The recipe marks orange as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar, bread, milk, egg, cinnamon, ginger):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, bread, milk, egg, cinnamon, ginger. 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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