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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, citron, suet, bread crumbs, apples, lemon peel, brandy, eggs, salt, cloves, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Prepare the fruit the day before by placing the raisins, currants, citron, and chopped apples in a bowl and pouring the brandy over them.

Make the pudding

  1. The next day, add the suet, bread crumbs, salt, cloves, and eggs to the fruit mixture and mix well.

  2. Butter a mold and fill it with the mixture, ensuring it is secure.

  3. Place a plate at the bottom of a kettle filled three-fourths with boiling water and put the pudding in.

  4. Boil for three to four hours, replenishing the pot with boiling water as needed.

Serve

  1. Turn the pudding out onto a hot dish, sprinkle sugar over it, and pour warm brandy on top.

  2. Light the brandy when ready to serve.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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 help the pudding hold its shape as it sets.
Bread crumbs
Provide the body of the pudding and soak up moisture and fat.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture to the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and concentrated fruit flavour throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Keeping the water boiling during the long steam. The pudding cooks gently by steam and hot water. If the kettle is allowed to drop below a boil, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy, so the water must be topped up with boiling water as it evaporates.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, currant, bread, apple, brandy, egg, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, currant, bread, apple, brandy, egg, clove. 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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