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Dessert

English Xmas Plum Pudding

A steamed plum pudding made with raisins, currants, spices, suet, butter, flour, eggs, and bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

English Xmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine raisins, currants, citron or lemon peel, sugar, crumbled bread, eggs, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, beef suet, butter, and flour in a large bowl.

  2. Mix in enough milk or water to form a batter.

  3. Place the mixture into a cloth bag and tie securely.

Boil and store

  1. Boil the bag in water for 4 hours.

  2. Let cool and store; it can be kept steamed for up to a month.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 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

Flour
Provides the bulk and structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and moist.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture to the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and moisture to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the texture and flavour.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth bag securely. If the bag is loose, water can seep in and soak the batter, making the pudding soggy and causing it to lose its shape while boiling. A tight seal keeps the mixture contained and its texture even.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, lemon, sugar, bread, egg, clove, cinnamon. 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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