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Dessert

Steamed Fruit Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, citron peel, almonds, eggs, coconut butter or olive oil, cracker dust, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Steamed Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a large bowl, combine the raisins, citron peel, almonds, beaten eggs, and coconut butter or olive oil.

  2. Add the cracker dust and mix well. Gradually add milk until the mixture forms a stiff paste.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pan and steam for 2 hours.

  2. Serve hot with a suitable 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 + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + coconuttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,155 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it steams.
Cracker dust
Forms the body of the pudding and absorbs moisture into a stiff paste.
Almonds
Add richness and a bit of texture through the pudding.
Coconut butter or olive oil
Adds fat, which softens the crumb and adds richness.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, coconut, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, coconut, 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.

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