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Dessert

Chocolate Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, citron, brandy, bread crumbs, spices, almonds, chocolate, suet, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chocolate Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the raisins, currants, and chopped citron in brandy overnight.

  2. Sift baking powder into bread crumbs, then add salt, brown sugar, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

Mix and steam

  1. Mix in chopped almonds, grated chocolate, soaked fruit, chopped suet, and eggs.

  2. Mix lightly and turn into a buttered mold.

  3. Steam for 4 hours.

  4. Serve with wine sauce.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 help the pudding set firm as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Provide the body that holds the pudding together and absorbs moisture.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a moist, caramel-like depth of flavor.
Grated sweet chocolate
Gives the pudding its chocolate flavor and color.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding and helps it rise.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, brandy, bread, sugar, clove, allspice, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, brandy, bread, sugar, clove, allspice, cinnamon. 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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