Skip to main content
Dessert

A Very Nice Christmas Pudding

A moist, spiced pudding made with soaked crackers, milk, eggs, suet, sugar, molasses, brandy, and dried fruit, boiled for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Very Nice Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Break the crackers into pieces.

  2. Soak the crackers in the milk overnight.

  3. Rub the soaked crackers through a colander.

  4. Beat the eggs in a large bowl.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix in the sugar.

  2. Mix in the molasses.

  3. Mix in the brandy.

  4. Mix in the suet.

  5. Mix in the salt.

  6. Mix in the nutmeg.

  7. Mix in the mace.

  8. Mix in the cloves.

  9. Mix in the lemon zest.

  10. Mix in the thinly sliced citron.

  11. Mix in the currants.

  12. Mix in the raisins.

  13. Combine the cracker mixture with the egg mixture until well blended.

  14. Pour the mixture into a mold or cloth.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil the mixture for 5 hours.

  2. Serve the pudding with a rich brandy or wine sauce.

  3. Pour brandy over the pudding before serving.

  4. Ignite the pudding for presentation.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Suet
Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a moist, tender texture.
Soft crackers
Soaked in milk, they soften into the batter and add body and moisture.
Molasses
Adds dark color and deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its rich flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 5 hours. Long, steady simmering cooks the eggs and starches through and sets the dense batter. Too little heat or time leaves it heavy and underdone, while a rapid boil can dry the edges or let water in the mold.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, molasses, brandy, nutmeg, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, molasses, brandy, nutmeg, clove. 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 christmas pudding recipes

Sauce 4Cottage 4Apple 3 See all 175 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipes