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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with brown sugar, molasses, spices, dried fruit, suet, almonds, eggs, milk, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Beat the eggs and brown sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the suet, milk, and all the fruits.

  3. Mix in the bread crumbs thoroughly.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for several hours until cooked through.

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 + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a tender crumb.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture.

The step that matters

Steam until cooked through. Steaming cooks the eggs and crumbs gently with steady moisture. Stopping too early leaves the centre wet and set unevenly, so the pudding should be checked until fully cooked.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, nutmeg, currant, raisin, beef, almond):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, nutmeg, currant, raisin, beef, almond. 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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