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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, sugar, currants, raisins, sultanas, candied peel, bread crumbs, spices, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the pudding

  1. Mix suet, sugar, currants, raisins, sultanas, candied peel, bread crumbs, salt, and spices in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the brandy and pour over the mixture.

  4. Stir the mixture for 25 minutes until well combined.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a mold.

  2. Fill the mold with the mixture.

  3. Scald a clean cloth.

  4. Flour the cloth.

  5. Tie the cloth over the mold.

Boil

  1. Boil the pudding for 7 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when heated.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and structure.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and a soft, moist texture with its molasses content.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, rich flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding for 7 hours. A long, steady boil cooks the dense mixture through evenly. Eggs and crumbs need sustained heat to set, so a weak or uneven boil can leave the centre undercooked and heavy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Datesfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, bread, egg, brandy. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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