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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A rich, fruit-filled pudding made with suet, sugar, bread crumbs, flour, brandy, raisins, currants, citron, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix

  1. In a large bowl, combine the suet, sugar, bread crumbs, flour, brandy, raisins, currants, citron, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Boil

  1. Place the mixture in a well-floured cloth or coarse mold.

  2. Boil for five hours.

  3. This pudding can be made a month in advance; boil for two hours on the day of serving.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 cooks.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a tender crumb.
Flour
Helps bind the mixture so it holds its shape when boiled.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the fruit taste rich and full.

The step that matters

Wrapping in a well-floured cloth or mold. A well-floured cloth or mold keeps the pudding from sticking and helps it hold its shape during the long boil.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, flour, brandy, raisin, cinnamon, 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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