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Thanksgiving Plum Pudding

A baked pudding made with grated bread, butter, milk, eggs, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Layer the pudding

  1. Layer half of the grated bread in a buttered dish.

  2. Add half of the butter pieces and half of the fruit.

  3. Repeat the layers until within 2 inches of the top of the dish.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together until well combined.

  2. Add the milk, grated nutmeg, salt, and baking soda to the egg mixture.

  3. Pour the custard slowly over the layered bread and fruit, allowing it to absorb.

Rest and bake

  1. Let the pudding stand for 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 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.

  1. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Baker's bread
Soaks up the custard and sets into a soft, pudding-like structure.
Eggs
Bind the custard and help it set firm during baking.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and tenderness.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender crumb.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Letting the pudding stand before baking. The standing time lets the bread absorb the custard fully, so the pudding bakes evenly and does not stay dry in pockets or runny in the middle.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, milk, egg, raisin, nutmeg. 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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