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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed plum pudding made with eggs, suet, raisins, currants, brown sugar, citron, bread crumbs, flour, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, suet, raisins, currants, brown sugar, citron, salt, bread crumbs, flour, and grated nutmeg. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a cloth and steam or boil for four hours.

  2. Serve with hot 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as the pudding sets.
Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a tender body.
Flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape after steaming.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavour.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and concentrated fruit flavour.

The step that matters

Steaming the mixture in a cloth. The cloth must be secured with room for the pudding to expand, and the water must keep simmering for the full four hours. Steam gently heats the mixture through so it sets evenly without drying out.

Swap the currant

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

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

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