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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, molasses, and spices, topped with a sweet sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 614 recipes. Both carry cinnamyl acetate, which smells sweet aromatic, cinnamon. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Mix sweet milk, butter, molasses, chopped figs, cinnamon, baking soda dissolved in hot water, eggs, and flour until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold and steam for 2 hours.

Make the sauce

  1. Beat together sugar, egg, and butter for 15 minutes to make the sauce.

  2. Set the mixture over a tea kettle until it creams and becomes foamy.

  3. Stir in the vinegar last.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main body, sweetness and chewy texture of the pudding.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together after steaming.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and deep sweetness to the pudding.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to help the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for the full time in a sealed mold. Steam gently and keep the mold covered so the batter cooks through evenly and stays moist. Lifting the lid or letting the water boil dry can leave the pudding dense or uneven.

Swap the fig

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, molasses, cinnamon, egg, 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 fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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