Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Remove the top crust from the bread and break it into pieces.
Pour the sweet milk over the bread and let it soak for a few hours.
Mix and bake
Add the eggs, sugar, raisins, salt, and cinnamon to the soaked bread.
Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for five to six hours.
Pour a little milk on the pudding while baking to prevent it from becoming too stiff.
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.
-
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Baker's bread
- Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up milk to give a soft, custard-like crumb.
- Sweet milk
- Softens the bread and provides the liquid that sets into a custard with the eggs.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set during baking to give the pudding its structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly during the long bake.
- Seeded raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
The step that matters
Pour a little milk on the pudding while baking. Long baking dries out the surface and firms the starches and proteins. Adding a little milk replaces lost moisture and keeps the pudding soft rather than stiff.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, egg, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Applefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, sugar, cinnamon. 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
You might also like
Bread Pudding153 recipes
Soft Ginger Bread85 recipes
Orange Potato Bread80 recipes
Cinnamon Rolls71 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.