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Dessert

The Queen of Plum Puddings

A rich plum pudding made with cracker crumbs, suet, sugar, raisins, candied fruits, citrus peel, currants, eggs, brandy, spices, and flour.

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 ↓

The Queen of Plum Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pudding

  1. Combine cracker crumbs, suet, sugar, raisins, candied fruits, citron, orange peel, lemon peel, and currants in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add the brandy, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon.

  3. Sift a little flour over the fruit mixture to prevent sinking. Mix everything together.

  4. Boil the pudding as you would other plum puddings.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, stick blanched almonds all over the pudding.

  2. Pour a little sugared brandy over the pudding. Light it by touching a burning match to it.

  3. Serve with wine or brandy 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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 add richness and structure as the pudding sets.
Cracker crumbs
Provide the bulk that holds the fruit and suet together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and fruit.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and carries the flame when lit.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, orange, lemon, egg, brandy, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, orange, lemon, egg, brandy, nutmeg. 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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