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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, currants, sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg, brandy, wine, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, suet, currants, sugar, eggs, milk, nutmeg, brandy, and wine.

  2. Mix well until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

  3. Pour the mixture into two quart bowls.

Boil and serve

  1. Cover the bowls with a cloth and secure with string.

  2. Boil the puddings in a large pot of water for six 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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  4. Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding its browned flavour.
Currants
Add fruitiness and chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm flavour that carries through the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the puddings in a large pot of water for six hours. The bowls must be fully submerged and the water kept at a steady boil for the whole six hours. Steam and heat from the water cook the batter through gently, and if the water drops or the bowls float free, the pudding can turn out uneven or underdone.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg, brandy, wine. 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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