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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed or boiled dessert made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, flour, sugar, lemon rind, nutmeg, eggs, candied peel, and brandy.

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

Make the batter

  1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs with the brandy in a separate bowl, then pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Steam and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into a basin or mold.

  2. Boil for 6 hours at the time of making and another 6 hours when ready to serve.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks, giving the pudding structure.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding body and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew, and moisture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 6 hours at the time of making and another 6 hours when ready to serve.. Long, steady steaming cooks the eggs and starches through and keeps the pudding moist. Letting the water drop below a gentle boil can leave the centre underdone or dry.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, flour, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, flour, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, egg. 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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