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Dessert

Fig Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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. Chop and cream the beef suet.

  2. Add the finely chopped figs and mix thoroughly.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the bread crumbs, beaten eggs, milk, sugar, and salt; mix well.

  4. Combine the suet mixture with the bread mixture and mix thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Place in a buttered pudding dish and steam for several hours.

  2. Serve with a fancy 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. Bread + figtop 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. Beef + breadtop 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

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm during steaming.
Stale bread crumbs
Provide body and absorb the milk to give the pudding structure.
Figs
Add fruit sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding taste rounded.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. The pudding needs a long, gentle steam so the eggs set and the suet melts into the crumbs without boiling or drying out. Keep the water at a steady simmer and check that it does not run dry during the long cook.

Swap the fig

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

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

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