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Dessert

The Queen of Plum Puddings

A rich plum pudding made with cracker crumbs, suet, raisins, candied fruits, and spices, finished with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

The Queen of Plum Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine cracker crumbs, suet, sugar, raisins, candied fruits, citron, and currants in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs in another bowl and add brandy, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon.

  3. Sift a little flour over the fruit mixture to prevent sinking. Mix the flour into the fruit mixture.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the fruit mixture and stir until fully incorporated.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the pudding as you would other plum puddings.

  2. Stick blanched almonds all over the pudding.

  3. Pour a little sugared brandy over the pudding. Light the brandy by touching a burning match to the pudding.

  4. Serve immediately. Serve with wine or brandy 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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Orange + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as they set during cooking.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it cooks.
Cracker crumbs
Provide the body that holds the fruit and batter together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown and flavour deepen.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and is set alight at the end of the recipe.

The step that matters

Combining the egg mixture with the fruit mixture. Stirring until fully incorporated spreads the eggs and spices evenly through the fruit and crumbs, so the pudding sets uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, orange, egg, brandy, nutmeg, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, orange, egg, brandy, nutmeg, allspice. 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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