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Dessert

Plain Plum Pudding

A steamed plum pudding made with stale bread crumbs, raisins, currants, molasses, suet, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

  2. In another bowl, beat the eggs and add the molasses.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 tablespoon of hot water and add it to the molasses and eggs.

  4. Combine the wet mixture with the dry ingredients and mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Pack the mixture into a greased mold.

  2. Boil for four hours.

  3. Serve with hard sauce or 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel note to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the molasses and eggs mixture. Baking soda needs an acid to react. Dissolving it in hot water and adding it to the acidic molasses releases gas that lightens the batter. Mixing it in evenly keeps the pudding from being dense in spots.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, flour, raisin, lemon, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, flour, raisin, lemon, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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