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Dessert

Christmas Plum Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat in the yolks of the eggs until smooth.

  3. Add the milk, then mix in the flour alternately with the beaten egg whites.

  4. Stir in the brandy and spices, then fold in the dredged fruit.

Cook

  1. Prepare a pudding cloth by wringing it out in hot water and flouring the inside.

  2. Pour the mixture into the cloth and tie it securely.

  3. Boil the pudding for 5 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the pudding a light, rich body and fat for flavour.
Eggs
Beaten whites and yolks add structure and lift, helping the pudding set and hold together.
Sourdough
Forms the bulk of the pudding, absorbing liquid and giving it a soft, bready crumb.
Suet
Adds fat that melts during boiling, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it cream into a light, airy mixture.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth securely. If the cloth is loose or leaks, water enters during boiling and the pudding turns soggy and waterlogged. A firm, sealed cloth keeps the batter contained and moist as it cooks.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, raisin, currant, egg, milk, brandy):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, raisin, currant, egg, milk, 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.

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