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Dessert

Plum Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Combine suet, raisins, currants, eggs, nutmeg, candied peel, ground ginger, bread crumbs, flour, dark sugar, and milk in a large bowl.

  2. Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or a greased pudding mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding in a large pot of water for 10 hours.

  2. Serve hot with brandy 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 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

Suet
Melts during long cooking, adding richness and a moist, tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and lighten the dense mixture, adding body.
Dark sugar
Adds sweetness and a deep, molasses-like flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the pudding in a large pot of water for 10 hours. The pudding must stay submerged and at a steady simmer for the full time; if the water boils dry or drops too low, the pudding cooks unevenly and can scorch or turn heavy. Keeping the mold sealed in its cloth also prevents water from soaking in and making it soggy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, egg, nutmeg, ginger, bread, flour, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, egg, nutmeg, ginger, bread, flour, sugar. 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.

More plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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