Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Fig Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and mix
Chop the figs very finely.
Mix the figs with coarse sugar, treacle, milk, flour, and nutmeg.
Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.
Boil
Boil the pudding for 4 to 5 hours.
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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Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together510 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fig + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,026 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Fig + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,192 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Figs
- Provide moisture, sweetness and soft body as they break down during cooking.
- Flour
- Forms the starch structure that sets the batter into a firm, sliceable pudding.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, moist texture.
- Coarse sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid so the flour can hydrate into a batter.
The step that matters
Boil for the full 4 to 5 hours. Long boiling gelatinises the flour's starch and softens the figs, setting the batter into a moist, firm pudding. Stopping early leaves the centre wet, gummy and underset.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, sugar, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, milk, flour. 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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