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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A rich boiled pudding of suet, dried fruit, crackers, eggs and spirits, finished with brandy and set alight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the suet, raisins, currants, rolled crackers, flour, sugar, citron, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and lemon peel.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, brandy, and sherry wine, mixing well.

  3. Transfer the mixture into a buttered bowl that can hold the pudding.

Steam and serve

  1. Tie a sturdy cloth tightly over the bowl.

  2. Place the bowl in a large kettle of boiling water and ensure it boils continuously for 6 hours.

  3. Before serving, pour brandy over the pudding and ignite it for a dramatic presentation.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
Flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape after steaming.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown and develop flavour.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and add body to the dense, moist texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keeping the water boiling for the full 6 hours. If the water stops boiling, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy or soggy. Steady heat and topping up the water keep the steam even.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, flour, sugar, brandy, sherry, wine, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, flour, sugar, brandy, sherry, wine, 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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