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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, bread crumbs, sugar, figs, eggs, milk, nutmeg, brandy, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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

Make the batter

  1. Combine suet, bread crumbs, sugar, figs, eggs, milk, nutmeg, brandy, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a bowl.

  2. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + figtop 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding its soft, cake-like body.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding as it cooks.
Figs
Add sweetness, moisture, and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with cream of tartar to release gas that helps the pudding rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so baking soda can react and lighten the texture.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Gentle, steady steam cooks the batter evenly and sets the eggs without drying the pudding. The leavening gas needs moist, sustained heat to lighten the crumb before the batter firms up.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, fig, egg, milk, brandy, cream. 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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