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Dessert

Christmas Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, mixed peel, breadcrumbs, suet, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Stone and cut the raisins in halves, but do not chop them.

  2. Wash, pick, and dry the currants.

  3. Mince the suet finely and cut the candied peel into thin slices.

  4. Grate the bread into fine crumbs.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix all the dry ingredients well together.

  2. Moisten the mixture with the well-beaten eggs and brandy, stirring thoroughly.

  3. Press the pudding into a buttered mold and tie it down tightly with a floured cloth.

  4. Boil for 5 to 6 hours, or in a cloth without a mold for the same time.

  5. After boiling, hang it up to drain on a plate or saucer.

Steam and serve

  1. On the day of serving, plunge it into boiling water and keep boiling for at least 2 hours.

  2. Turn it out of the mold and serve with brandy sauce.

  3. For presentation, place a sprig of holly in the middle and pour brandy around it, lighting it 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy fruit body throughout the pudding.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding a light, tender structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help set the pudding's structure.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and helps preserve the pudding.

The step that matters

Boiling for the full time. The pudding must cook long enough for heat to reach the center and set the eggs and starch. Keeping the water at a steady boil, and topping up as needed, prevents underdone or soggy results.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, egg, brandy):

  1. Red currantfits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, egg, 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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