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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, flour, egg, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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. In a bowl, mix the suet, flour, bread crumbs, baking powder, sugar, and diced figs.

  2. Stir well, then gradually add the beaten egg and milk.

  3. Pour the mixture into a well-greased pan.

Steam

  1. Steam for 2 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 + 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. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fig + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 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

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavour and sweetness, and soft pieces throughout the pudding.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together once cooked.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes lighter.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it blends evenly.

The step that matters

Pour into a well-greased pan. Steamed batters are wet and can stick firmly to the pan. Thorough greasing lets the pudding release cleanly once it has set.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, flour, 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.

More fig pudding recipes

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