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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A baked pudding made with figs, butter, bread crumbs, ginger, eggs, milk, spices, and optional wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs.

  2. In a bowl, mix the chopped figs, butter, bread crumbs, ginger, eggs, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and wine if using.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for three hours.

  2. 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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main body, sweetness and fruity flavor of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Butter
Adds richness and a soft, moist texture to the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, custard-like texture when set.

The step that matters

Boil for three hours. Steaming or boiling at a steady gentle heat cooks the eggs and crumbs through evenly. If the water drops below a simmer or the mold is not sealed, the pudding can turn out dense or waterlogged.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, butter, bread, egg, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, butter, bread, egg, milk, cinnamon, 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.

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