Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with beef suet, flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, baking powder, and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and fig work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 374 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Chop the beef suet finely.

  2. In a bowl, mix the suet, flour, bread crumbs, sugar, and baking powder.

  3. Fold in the chopped figs until evenly distributed.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for about 1.5 to 2 hours until cooked through.

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. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Flour + figtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Lightens the batter and helps absorb moisture for a softer crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to the pudding's flavor and color.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes lighter.
Figs
Provide natural sweetness, chewy texture, and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steam until cooked through. Steaming gently and for the full time lets heat reach the centre of the dense batter, setting the structure without drying the pudding. Lifting the lid too often lets steam escape and slows cooking, so the pudding may stay gummy inside.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Avocadofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, bread, 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 fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes