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Dessert

Small and Cheap Plum Pudding

A suet-based pudding with raisins, currants, molasses, and spices, baked or steamed for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Small and Cheap Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chopped suet, raisins, currants, molasses, egg, flour, milk, baking soda, cloves, and cinnamon, then mix until well combined.

Steam

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold or heatproof bowl and cover tightly with a lid or foil.

  2. Boil or steam for 3 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 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. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist as it cooks.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it sets.
Egg
Binds the ingredients and helps give the pudding its set structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the texture and aid rising.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich, slightly acidic depth of flavour.
Raisins
Contribute sweetness, chewiness and moisture to the finished pudding.

The step that matters

Cover tightly before steaming. A tight seal keeps steam trapped around the pudding so it cooks through evenly and stays moist. A loose cover lets steam escape, so the pudding can dry out or cook unevenly over the long boil.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, molasses, egg, flour, milk, clove, cinnamon. 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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