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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed or boiled pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

  2. Place the mixture into a pudding cloth and tie it securely.

  3. Ensure the water is boiling before adding the pudding.

Cook

  1. Boil for 8 to 9 hours or steam for 24 hours.

Store

  1. This pudding can be stored for weeks.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 help it set firm as it cooks.
Suet
Melts during cooking to add richness and a moist, tender texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding its body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding stay moist.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a chewy texture.
Currants
Add sweetness and a chewy texture.

The step that matters

Ensure the water is boiling before adding the pudding. Starting in water that is already at a full boil heats the pudding quickly and evenly from the outside in. Water that is cooler slows the heating, which can leave the pudding dense and uneven.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, bread, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, almond):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, bread, lemon, nutmeg, cinnamon, almond. 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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