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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, citron, candied orange peel, beef suet, bread crumbs, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, brandy, nutmeg, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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

Prepare the mixture

  1. Mix the raisins, currants, citron, and candied orange peel in a large bowl.

  2. Add the chopped beef suet, bread crumbs, sugar, and flour to the mixture.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then add the milk, brandy, grated nutmeg, and allspice.

  4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix well.

Boil

  1. Tie the mixture in a strong cloth and boil for 7 hours.

Serve

  1. To serve, cut a piece of pudding and place it in a tin mold.

  2. Put the mold into boiling water until the pudding is heated through.

  3. Turn the pudding onto a dish, pour a little alcohol over it, and set it on fire.

  4. Serve with a rich sauce seasoned with nutmeg and brandy.

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

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

  3. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Raisin + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,684 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Beef suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist during long boiling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a light, tender body.
Flour
Adds bulk and structure so the pudding holds its shape.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture through the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give a rich, dark color.

The step that matters

Boiling the pudding in a cloth. The pudding must be tied firmly and kept at a steady boil for the full seven hours. Loose wrapping lets water in, and water that drops below a boil slows cooking, leaving the pudding heavy and unevenly set.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, orange, beef, bread, sugar, flour, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, orange, beef, bread, sugar, flour, 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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