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Dessert

Christmas Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated bread, milk, currants, raisins, citron, brown sugar, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the grated bread, fresh milk, currants, raisins, citron, brown sugar, beaten eggs, and dissolved baking soda.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a pudding bag that has been scalded and well floured.

Cook

  1. Boil the pudding in a pot of water for three 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 + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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.
Grated bread
Soaks up the milk and gives the pudding a soft, tender body.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic dried fruit to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness, moisture and chewy fruit texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness, moisture and chewy fruit texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel note.

The step that matters

Floured pudding bag. The bag must be scalded and well floured so the pudding does not stick to it and can release cleanly. Scalding softens the cloth and removes residue, while flour creates a thin barrier against wet batter.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, raisin, sugar, 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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