Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: ½ pound figs, chopped very fine; ½ pound bread crumbs; 6 ounces moist sugar (wet before weighing); 6 ounces beef suet, chopped; 2 eggs; a little nutmeg; 1 cup milk

Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the figs and sugar very fine.

Mix and steam

In a bowl, mix the figs, bread crumbs, moist sugar, beef suet, eggs, nutmeg, and milk until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a mold or steamer.
Steam for 2 hours.

Serve

Serve with 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.

Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together510 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs: Provide the main sweet flavor and moist, chewy body of the pudding.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and give the pudding a soft, light structure.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Beef suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavor.
Milk: Moistens the crumbs and helps the batter hold together.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, bread, sugar, beef, egg, milk):

Cinnamonfits about as well
Nutmegthe original
Clovefits less well
Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, bread, sugar, beef, egg, milk. 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.