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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, breadcrumbs, flour, sugar, egg, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and fig 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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine sugar, bread crumbs, flour, beef suet, egg, sweet milk, chopped figs, baking powder, and salt. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the pudding for three 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. Milk + figtop 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. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the body of the pudding and gives it structure as it sets.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and soft texture, absorbing moisture from the mixture.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together and helps the pudding set.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding and helps it rise.
Chopped figs
Provide fruit sweetness and flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for three hours. Steaming must be gentle and steady so the pudding cooks through evenly without drying out. Water that boils dry or runs low can scorch the mold or leave the centre underdone, so the pot needs monitoring.

Swap the fig

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

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

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