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Dessert

Fruit Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, bread crumbs, baking powder, spices, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, suet, raisins, currants, citron, sugar, bread crumbs, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and grated nutmeg. Mix all ingredients thoroughly until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture into a pudding mold or heatproof dish.

Steam

  1. Steam the pudding for 3 hours until fully cooked.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the pudding set into a firm, sliceable structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Provide the body of the pudding and soak up moisture from the other ingredients.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the mixture and gives a lighter crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and dried fruit.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pieces throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. The egg and crumb mixture sets gradually under gentle, steady heat. Steam that is too fierce or drops off during the full 3 hours can leave the pudding uneven or undercooked in the centre.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, raisin, sugar, bread, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, raisin, sugar, bread, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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 fruit pudding recipes

Steamed 91Boiled 17Cold 14English 14Baked 12Tapioca 11 See all 210 →

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