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Dessert

Plum-pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, marrow, flour, sugar, brandy, milk, candied peel, spices, dried fruit, eggs, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum-pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, mix the suet, marrow, and flour.

  2. Add salt, sugar, brandy, and milk; stir well.

  3. Incorporate the candied peel, nutmeg, currants, raisins, rennets, and apricot jam if using.

  4. Stir in the beaten eggs and mix briskly.

  5. Add the grated lemon and juice; stir again.

Soak and boil

  1. Let the mixture soak for 1-2 hours.

  2. Tie the pudding tightly in a cloth and boil for 4-5 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. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during boiling.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, giving the pudding a tender, moist crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness throughout.

The step that matters

Tie the pudding tightly in a cloth. A loose cloth lets water seep into the pudding during the long boil, making it soggy and heavy. A snug wrap keeps water out and holds the shape while the batter cooks through.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, sugar, brandy, milk, orange, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, sugar, brandy, milk, orange, 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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