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Dessert

Another Pig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, flour, sugar, eggs, 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 nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Another Pig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs and suet very finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped figs, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, flour, grated nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.

  3. Mix in the eggs and about 1 tablespoon of milk.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-greased basin.

Steam

  1. Steam for 3 hours, or for 1 hour if using small greased molds.

  2. Place the molds in a saucepan with enough water to come halfway up the sides.

  3. Cover with greased paper and ensure the saucepan lid fits tightly.

  4. Keep the water boiling throughout the steaming process.

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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried figs
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture that keeps the pudding moist.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich, tender and moist as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a light, soft body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Flour
Provides structure so the pudding holds its shape.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture and deepens the flavour.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling throughout steaming. Steaming needs a steady boil to cook the pudding through. If the water drops, the pudding cooks unevenly and can turn heavy and soggy. A tight lid keeps the steam in.

Swap the fig

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

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

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

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