Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and stone the raisins.
Rub the butter into the wheatmeal.
Mix together the raisins, butter, wheatmeal, cinnamon, sugar, and breadcrumbs.
Boil the sago in ½ cup of milk until soft, adding water as needed.
Combine the sago with the other ingredients.
Beat the eggs, add them to the mixture, and mix well.
If the mixture is too dry, add milk to moisten.
Steam and serve
Fill a buttered pudding basin with the mixture, tie with a pudding cloth, and steam for 3 hours.
Serve with a sweet white sauce.
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.
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during steaming.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour and fat-soluble flavour.
- Wholemeal breadcrumbs
- Absorb liquid and give the pudding a moist, bulky body.
- Fine wheatmeal
- Provides the main starch and bulk that gives the pudding its body.
- Sago
- Swells when boiled in milk, adding softness and a tender, moist texture.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit flavour throughout.
The step that matters
Adding milk to moisten the mixture. Flour and breadcrumbs absorb liquid unevenly, so a dry mix gives a crumbly pudding. Adding milk gradually until the mixture is soft but not runny keeps the steamed pudding moist and cohesive.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Applefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, milk. 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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