Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: 1½ cups chopped figs; 2 cups bread crumbs; ½ cup molasses; ¾ cup sugar; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup chopped suet; 1 cup graham flour; milk (enough to moisten)

Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a large bowl, combine chopped figs, bread crumbs, molasses, sugar, egg, baking soda, chopped suet, and graham flour.
Add enough milk to moisten the mixture.
Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.

Steam

Steam for three 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.

Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together374 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs: Provide the main fruit flavour and moist, sweet body to the pudding.
Bread crumbs: Add bulk and soak up moisture, giving the pudding a tender crumb.
Molasses: Adds dark sweetness and a deep, caramel-like flavour.
Egg: Binds the ingredients together so the pudding holds its shape.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses to lighten the texture and help the pudding rise.
Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, molasses, sugar, egg, flour, milk):

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figthe original
Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, molasses, sugar, egg, flour, 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.