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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, citrus peel, milk, eggs, nutmeg, and brandy.

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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stir the raisins and divide them.

  2. Wash and dry the currants and Sultanas.

  3. Cut the peel into slices.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix the raisins, currants, Sultanas, bread crumbs, suet, and sliced peel in a large bowl.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg, beaten eggs, brandy, and milk, and stir until well blended.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold and tie a floured cloth over it.

  4. Boil the pudding for 6 hours.

Serve

  1. Once done, turn it out and serve with burning brandy or arrowroot 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. 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. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and eggs, giving the pudding body and a tender crumb.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist as it cooks.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the crumbs and loosens the batter.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding for 6 hours. The long, steady simmer is what cooks the eggs and starch through and sets the pudding. Water must be kept topped up and boiling gently so the pudding cooks evenly without drying out or becoming dense.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, bread, milk, egg, nutmeg, brandy. 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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