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Dessert

Miss Shirley's Plum Pudding

A steamed plum pudding made with raisins, bread crumbs, sweet milk, citron, nuts, eggs, sugar, spices, wine, brandy, flour, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Miss Shirley's Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the raisins, bread crumbs, sweet milk, citron, chopped nuts, beaten eggs, brown sugar, grated nutmegs, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, wine, and brandy.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture and stir well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and cover.

  2. Boil for 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 add structure as they set during cooking.
Flour
Provides body so the pudding holds its shape once cooked.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding and helps it rise.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add softness to the dense pudding texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Boil for 6 hours. A long, steady simmer cooks the eggs and flour through and sets the dense pudding. Water must be kept topped up so the mold stays submerged and the pudding does not scorch or turn out heavy.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg, clove. 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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