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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, bread crumbs, suet, brown sugar, eggs, milk, flour, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop figs and suet very finely.

  2. Mix chopped figs, suet, bread crumbs, flour, sugar, and nutmeg in a bowl.

  3. Add beaten eggs and milk to the mixture and combine well.

  4. Press the mixture into a buttered mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold with a thick cloth and steam for 4 hours.

  2. Serve with or without sauce.

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. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it steams.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich.
Flour
Adds structure that helps the pudding hold its shape.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
Figs
Add natural sweetness, chewy texture, and fruity flavor.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. The mold must be covered tightly and steamed over gently simmering water for the full time, since the pudding sets slowly with gentle heat. Too little heat or water leaves it dense and undercooked in the center.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, nutmeg, milk, flour. 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 fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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