Skip to main content
Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with molasses, butter, milk, flour, spices, raisins, currants, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, butter, and milk until well combined.

  2. Gradually add the flour, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, raisins, currants, and salt. Stir until the mixture is smooth.

Cook

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Boil the pudding for 4 hours, ensuring the water level remains consistent.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add tart, chewy fruit flavor and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water level consistent while boiling. Boiling for 4 hours can evaporate the water, exposing the mold. Steady, even heat cooks the pudding gently and evenly, and a water level that drops can scorch or leave the pudding unevenly cooked.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, milk, flour, clove, cinnamon, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, milk, flour, clove, cinnamon, raisin. 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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipes