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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, sugar, candied peel, bread crumbs, suet, spices, lemons, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet finely.

  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the eggs, beaten well, to the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold.

  3. Boil in water for 6 to 7 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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 and richness as they set during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich during long steaming.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note that deepens the flavor.
Currants
Add tart, concentrated fruit flavor and chewy texture.

The step that matters

Boil in water for 6 to 7 hours. The pudding must cook long and at a steady simmer so the eggs and crumbs set through the center. Too little time or a rolling boil that drops below steady heat can leave it dense or uneven.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, bread, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, lemon. 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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