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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, raisins, currants, rusk, sugar, eggs, citron, brandy, nutmeg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine suet, raisins, currants, rusk, sugar, eggs, citron, brandy, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl, then mix well until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.

Boil and serve

  1. Place a plate at the bottom of a kettle filled with boiling water to prevent burning.

  2. Boil the pudding for 3 hours.

  3. Remove from water and let cool before serving.

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 + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 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 help set the pudding as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Baker's rusk
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body and structure.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and concentrated fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding for 3 hours. The pudding must stay submerged in gently boiling water for the full time so the eggs and starch set evenly through the centre. Keeping the plate at the bottom protects the mold from scorching on the hot base of the kettle.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

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

More plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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