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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A pudding made with figs, grated bread, powdered sugar, butter, eggs, and milk, boiled in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Chop the figs finely and mix them with the butter.

  2. Gradually add the grated bread, powdered sugar, eggs, and milk.

Mold and cook

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

  2. Sprinkle the top with bread crumbs.

  3. Cover tightly and boil for 3 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide sweetness, moisture, and the main fruity flavor and texture of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, giving the pudding structure.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, moist crumb.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body and a soft, cake-like texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the bread so the batter blends smoothly.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the batter for an even texture.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and boil for 3 hours. A tight cover traps steam so the pudding cooks gently and evenly through while staying moist. A loose cover lets steam escape, which can leave the outside dry and the centre underdone.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, butter, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Peachfits less well
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, egg, milk. 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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