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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, flour, suet, milk, sugar, eggs, and flavored with wine and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine chopped figs, flour, baking powder, suet, milk, and sugar.

  2. Add eggs and mix well.

  3. Flavor with wine and spices to your preference.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 4 hours until cooked 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. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Fig + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together195 recipes

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

  3. Fig + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruity sweetness and moist, dense body to the pudding.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and become lighter.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set the pudding's structure as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and moist.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time. Steaming gently and for the full period cooks the thick batter through to the centre without drying the outside. Lifting the lid or letting the water boil low can leave the pudding undercooked or uneven.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Lemonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, milk, sugar, wine. 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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