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Dessert

Steamed Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, figs, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Steamed Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cream the chopped suet until smooth.

  2. Mix in the chopped figs until well combined.

  3. Soak the stale bread crumbs in milk for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the beaten eggs, sugar, and salt to the soaked bread crumbs.

  5. Combine all mixtures and heat vigorously.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour into a buttered mold and steam for 3 hours.

  2. Remove from the mold and serve with sherry 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. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  5. Fig + sugartop 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Figs
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Stale bread crumbs
Give body and structure, soaking up milk to bind the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when heated.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown lightly at the edges.

The step that matters

Steam for the full 3 hours at a steady simmer. Steaming gently and consistently cooks the eggs and starch through so the pudding sets evenly. Letting the water boil dry or drop too low leaves the center dense or underdone.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Datesfits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, 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.

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