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Dessert

Pudding a LA Francaise

A suet pudding made with flour, apricot jam, apple, candied cherries, candied peel, sugar, spices, lemon peel, eggs, sherry, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 11,917 recipes mention both. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the suet, flour, apricot jam, chopped apple, candied cherries, candied peel, sugar, mixed spices, lemon peel, eggs, sherry, and cream until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.

Cook

  1. Boil the pudding for 4 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Apricot + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  5. Apple + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender crumb as it melts during cooking.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set it as it cooks.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness, moisture and a fruity flavour.
Candied cherries
Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its soft, moist texture.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding for 4 hours. The pudding must cook for the full time at a steady simmer so the eggs and flour set through. Too little time leaves it wet and dense, and a rolling boil that drops below the water line can uneven the cooking.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, apricot, apple, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Pearbetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, apricot, apple, sugar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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