Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: 1 pound figs, soaked until soft and chopped fine; 2 cups bread crumbs; 1 cup brown sugar; ¾ pound chopped suet; 2 eggs; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Fig and bread work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 374 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

Combine figs, bread crumbs, brown sugar, suet, eggs, and salt in a bowl and mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.

Steam

Steam the pudding for 2 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.

Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,241 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Fig + eggtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,406 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs: Provide the main body, sweetness and moist, jammy texture of the pudding.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, tender structure.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during steaming.
Eggs: Bind the ingredients together and help set the pudding.