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Dessert

Plum-pudding, with Brandy or Rum

A steamed plum pudding made with breadcrumbs, suet, raisins, currants, candied fruit, spices, eggs, milk, and brandy or rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum-pudding, with Brandy or Rum

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine breadcrumbs, suet, brown sugar, raisins, currants, candied fruit, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs in another bowl, then mix in the milk and brandy or rum.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a pudding mold and fill it with the mixture, leaving some space for expansion.

  2. Cover the mold with a cloth and secure it with string.

  3. Steam the pudding for about 4 hours, ensuring the water does not boil dry.

  4. Let it cool slightly before serving.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding a soft, cake-like body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the breadcrumbs into the batter.
Brandy or rum
Adds aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water from boiling dry during steaming. Steaming for about 4 hours needs a steady supply of water. If the pot boils dry, the pudding can scorch or dry out, and the steam that cooks it evenly is lost.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, milk, brandy. 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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