Skip to main content
Main

Christmas Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, bread crumbs, flour, dried fruit, candied citrus, nutmeg, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, mix the shredded suet, salt, bread crumbs, flour, raisins, currants, candied lemon and citron, and grated nutmeg thoroughly.

  2. Add the eggs and enough milk to moisten the mixture without making it heavy.

Cook

  1. Ensure the mold is not quite full and covered with buttered and floured paper and a floured pudding cloth, then tie the mixture in a well-floured pudding cloth or place it in a well-buttered mold.

  2. Boil for 5 to 6 hours.

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. Flour + raisintop 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

Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and structure that hold the pudding together.
All-purpose flour
Helps bind the mixture and gives it body as it sets.
Eggs
Bind the ingredients and set the pudding as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Leave room in the mold. Boiling pudding expands and the mixture rises as it cooks, so filling the mold too full can cause it to overflow or cook unevenly. Covering it well keeps steam in and water out.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, flour, raisin, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes