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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A suet-based plum pudding with raisins, sultanas, currants, candied peel, spices, eggs, and milk, boiled in covered bowls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl, using your hands to combine thoroughly.

  2. Add the eggs and milk to the mixture.

  3. Mix in the brandy.

  4. Butter a quart bowl and three or four smaller bowls thoroughly.

Steam and store

  1. Fill the bowls nearly full and cover with heavy muslin.

  2. Wet the muslin, dredge with flour, and tie it over the top of the bowls.

  3. Place the bowls in a pot of boiling water and boil steadily for 10 hours, keeping them covered with boiling water.

  4. Remove from the boiler, let drain, and store until needed.

Reheat and serve

  1. When ready to serve, boil again for 1 to 2 hours until heated through.

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 + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Kidney suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the pudding's texture as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Soak up liquid and lighten the dense batter slightly.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and helps preserve the pudding.

The step that matters

Keeping the bowls covered with boiling water. If the water level drops, the pudding cooks unevenly and can dry out over the long steaming time. Steady boiling keeps the heat constant so the batter sets gently and stays moist.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, raisin, flour, orange, lemon, bread, 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.

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