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Dessert

Fig Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

  1. Combine chopped figs, bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, suet, sweet milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a bowl and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased tin mold.

  3. Steam the pudding for three hours.

  4. Serve with hard 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. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Fig + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 flavor and moisture, and their sugars add sweetness to the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help give the cooked pudding its set structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and gives it a rich, tender texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the pudding a soft, cakey crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the mixture to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid with the baking soda, helping the pudding rise and stay light.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for three hours. Steaming gently cooks the pudding through with steady moisture, keeping it tender. Too little water or heat can leave it dry or underdone, and lifting the lid lets steam escape.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

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