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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, figs, spices, molasses, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dry mix

  1. Sift the baking soda, salt, and spices into the flours.

  2. Rub in the suet.

  3. Add the floured fruit.

Combine and steam

  1. Mix the milk with the molasses.

  2. Stir the mixture into the dry ingredients.

  3. Steam in a buttered pudding mold for 4 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with a foamy 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to lighten the pudding as it steams.
Suet
Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving a rich, tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweet flavor.
Figs
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
All-purpose flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape after steaming.
Graham flour
Adds a nutty, coarse texture and a wholesome, hearty body.

The step that matters

Steam in a buttered pudding mold for 4 hours. Steaming provides gentle, steady moist heat that sets the batter without drying it. The mold must be sealed and the water kept boiling, or the pudding will turn dry and dense.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, fig, milk, molasses):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, fig, milk, molasses. 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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