Skip to main content
Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, molasses, apples, raisins, currants, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the suet, molasses, chopped apple, milk, salt, spices, raisins, currants, citron, and candied orange peel if using.

  2. Add the blanched almonds and beaten eggs, mixing well.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until fully incorporated.

Boil and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold or heatproof bowl.

  2. Boil for three hours, ensuring the water level remains consistent.

  3. Serve hot with a liquid 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts during cooking.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set firm as it cooks.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together once cooked.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist, rich flavour.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water level steady while boiling. Boiling for three hours needs a constant water level; if the water drops and the mold is exposed, the pudding can dry out and cook unevenly, while steady simmering cooks it gently and evenly.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, cinnamon, allspice, mace, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, cinnamon, allspice, mace, clove, 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 →

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesApple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipes