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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A pudding made with figs, grated bread, butter, eggs, milk, topped with bread crumbs and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs into small pieces.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped figs with the softened butter.

  3. Add the grated bread, eggs, and milk to the fig mixture and combine well.

  4. Butter a pudding mold and pour the mixture into it.

  5. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Cover lightly and boil for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with brandy 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main flavour and sweetness, and moisture through the pudding.
Grated bread
Gives the pudding body and soaks up the liquid so it holds together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pudding a softer, tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the bread soften into a uniform batter.

The step that matters

Covering and boiling for 3 hours. The pudding must cook gently and steadily in a covered mold so it sets through without drying out. Boiling too hard or letting water in can make it coarse or soggy.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

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