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Dessert

Mock Plum Pudding

A pudding made from soaked dry bread, dried fruit, spices, eggs, brown sugar, and baking powder, boiled for 1½ hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mock Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Soak the dry bread in water until soft.

  2. Chop the soaked bread and mix with raisins, prunes, or dry figs, and spices.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the beaten eggs, brown sugar, and baking powder.

  4. Mix the egg mixture with the bread mixture until well combined.

Boil and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a cloth or pudding mold and tie securely.

  2. Boil in a pot of water for 1½ 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. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,111 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry bread
Soaked and chopped, it forms the bulk and body of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during boiling, giving the pudding structure.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
Raisins, prunes, or dry figs
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the pudding and helps it rise.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth or mold securely. If the seal is loose, water enters the pudding during boiling and makes it soggy and dense, so the mixture cannot cook and set properly.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Datesfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

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