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Dessert

Of a French Plum-pudding

A plum pudding made with oranges, lemons, brandy, suet, plums, almonds, currants, cheese, cream, and beer, boiled for 12 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Of a French Plum-pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil in plenty of water for 12 hours.

  2. Serve warm.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Orange + plumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together309 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + plumtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 it firm when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Add body and absorb liquid to give the pudding structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy fruit texture throughout.
Plums
Add moisture, sweetness and fruity flavour.

The step that matters

Keeping the water boiling for the full 12 hours. The pudding cooks by steady heat from the surrounding water. If the water level drops or the boil stops, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy. Topping up with boiling water keeps the heat constant.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, lemon, brandy, pepper, butter, bread, egg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blackberryfits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, lemon, brandy, pepper, butter, bread, 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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