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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, eggs, suet, sugar, and chopped figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.

  2. Beat in the eggs, powdered beef suet, and sugar.

  3. Fold in the chopped figs.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a double boiler and pour in the mixture.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Turn out and serve with hot 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. 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. Milk + beeftop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and set into a firm, tender structure as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and give the pudding its soft, moist body.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the batter.
Powdered beef suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the steamed pudding tender and moist.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds moisture to the batter.
Figs
Add sweetness, chewy texture, and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam gently for the full 3 hours. Steady, gentle steam cooks the egg-thickened batter evenly and sets it without drying it out. If the water boils dry or the steam escapes, the pudding can turn dense or uneven.

Swap the fig

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

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

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