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Dessert

Fig Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 238 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix flour, bread crumbs, suet, apples, figs, and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add enough milk to form a firm paste, not wet.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered mold and press it tightly.

  2. Cover with a cloth and steam for three hours.

  3. Serve with wine sauce or melted butter.

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. Apple + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, giving the pudding a light, crumbly texture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Figs
Contribute sweetness and a soft, chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Apples
Add moisture and a mild tartness that balances the sweetness of the figs and sugar.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. The mixture should be a firm paste, not wet. Too much milk makes the pudding heavy and soggy, because the crumbs and flour can only absorb so much liquid before the structure breaks down during steaming.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

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

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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