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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with beet suet, bread crumbs, figs, spices, sherry, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beet suet, bread crumbs, fresh figs, grated nutmeg, cinnamon, sherry wine, sugar, egg yolks, sweet milk, sifted flour, and baking powder, then mix all ingredients well until fully combined.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold and steam for 3 hours.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Fig + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Beet suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Provide the body that holds the pudding together.
Fresh figs
Supply the main fruit flavour and soft, moist texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set firmly as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding as it heats.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, nutmeg, cinnamon, sherry, wine, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, nutmeg, cinnamon, sherry, wine, sugar, egg. 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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