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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, bread crumbs, flour, milk, sugar, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and prepare

  1. Chop the figs finely and mix them with the butter, sugar, and eggs.

  2. Butter a mold and sprinkle it with flour.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  2. Steam for 3 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, giving the pudding structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body to the pudding.
Figs
Add sweetness, fruity flavour and moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture.
Flour
Helps the pudding hold its shape and gives it structure.
Milk
Moistens the mixture so it cooks into a soft pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steaming gently for the full time cooks the eggs and bread crumbs through evenly. Keep the steam steady so the pudding cooks without drying out or turning rubbery.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figthe original
  4. Peachfits less well

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

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