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Dessert

Plain Christmas Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, eggs, milk, sugar, raisins, currants, spices, lemon, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift and mix the flour and baking powder.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the suet, eggs, milk, sugar, raisins, currants, spices, lemon rind, lemon juice, and citron.

  3. Add the flour mixture and mix thoroughly.

Boil and serve

  1. Dip a pudding cloth in hot water and sprinkle it with flour.

  2. Tie up the ends of the cloth and boil the pudding for 5 hours.

  3. For a colonial finish, turn the pudding out onto a platter, pour over a little brandy, and ignite it.

  4. Serve while blazing with a rich 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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as it sets during boiling.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and lighten.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts during cooking.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding's structure.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tie up the ends of the cloth and boil the pudding for 5 hours. The cloth must be sealed snugly and the pudding kept submerged and simmering; if water gets in or the pot boils dry, the pudding turns soggy or uneven. Steady, gentle boiling cooks the batter through evenly.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, sugar, raisin, cinnamon, allspice. 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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