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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine raisins, currants, suet, citron, eggs, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, brandy, salt, sugar, and milk.

  2. Add enough flour to create a thick batter.

Boil and serve

  1. Butter a pudding mold and pour the batter into it.

  2. Boil the pudding for 4 hours.

  3. Before serving, pour a little brandy over the pudding and ignite it.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm during cooking.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter holds together as a thick pudding.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and ignites for a flamed finish when served.

The step that matters

Before serving, pour a little brandy over the pudding and ignite it.. Brandy must be warm and the pudding should be fully cooked before flaming. Alcohol vapour ignites when heated, and the flame burns off some alcohol while leaving aroma behind.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, egg, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, brandy, sugar. 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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