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Dessert

Another Recipe for Fruit Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated bread, currants, raisins, almonds, suet, eggs, spices, and brandy or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Another Recipe for Fruit Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make and cook the pudding

  1. Mix the grated bread with the eggs, suet, currants, raisins, almonds, and all other ingredients.

  2. Tie the mixture in a towel and steam it for 5 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. After cooking, decorate the pudding with half the almonds and half the citron.

  2. Serve with a rich wine sauce.

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 + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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 firm as it steams.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Stale bread
Gives body to the mixture and soaks up the liquid and fat.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften the texture of the pudding.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding in a towel. The pudding must be tied firmly and kept at a steady simmer so it cooks through and holds its shape. Steam loss or a loose tie can leave it dense or uneven in texture.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, raisin, almond, egg, brandy, sherry, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, raisin, almond, egg, brandy, sherry, nutmeg. 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

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