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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, raisins, currants, candied peel, spices, breadcrumbs, flour, sugar, eggs, 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

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, combine the suet, raisins, currants, eggs, nutmeg, candied peel, ginger, bread crumbs, flour, and dark brown sugar.

  2. Mix in the milk until well combined.

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

Cook and serve

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

  2. Serve 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
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds together when cooked.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep caramel flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil for 10 hours in a large pot of water. The long, steady boil gently sets the eggs, flour, and crumbs into a firm, fully cooked pudding. Enough water must keep boiling the whole time so the pudding cooks evenly.

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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