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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A baked pudding made with figs, bread, sugar, butter, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs small.

  2. Mix the chopped figs with the butter.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the grated bread, powdered sugar, eggs, and milk gradually, mixing well.

  2. Butter a mold and sprinkle it with breadcrumbs.

  3. Cover the mold tightly and boil for 3 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main flavor and sweetness, and moisture as they soften in the pudding.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding its body and soft crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a tender texture and rich flavor.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the batter.

The step that matters

Cover the mold tightly and boil for 3 hours. A tight cover traps steam so the pudding cooks in moist heat and stays tender. If the lid leaks, water can enter and the pudding turns soggy, while the long boil sets the eggs and bread into a firm, cohesive pudding.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Peachfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, egg, 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.

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