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Dessert

Old English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, currants, raisins, sugar, citron, flour, spices, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Old English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Beat the eggs very lightly and mix in the brown sugar until well combined.

  2. Stir in the chopped suet, then add the flour, currants, raisins, and shredded citron.

  3. Add the ground ginger and grated nutmeg to taste. Finally, mix in the brandy.

Boil

  1. Transfer the mixture into a mold and tie it securely in a cloth. Boil the pudding constantly for 5 to 7 hours.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 structure as they set during cooking.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Flour
Provides the body and structure that holds the pudding together.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavor.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding constantly. Steady, continuous boiling keeps the water at a constant temperature so the pudding cooks through evenly. If the pot is allowed to drop below a boil, the pudding cooks slowly and can turn heavy or doughy. Topping up water during the long boil helps maintain even heat.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, bread, flour, ginger, nutmeg, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, bread, flour, ginger, nutmeg, brandy. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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