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Dessert

Mai Gre Plum Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, mace, lemon peel, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, flour, butter, bread crumbs, currants, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mai Gre Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Simmer the milk with the mace and lemon peel for 10 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture into a bowl and let it cool.

  3. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the loaf sugar and grated nutmeg.

  4. Gradually add the flour and mix well.

  5. Slowly incorporate the cooled milk into the egg mixture.

Assemble and cook

  1. Add the butter, bread crumbs, currants, and chopped raisins; stir until combined.

  2. Butter a mold, pour in the mixture, and tie a cloth tightly over it.

  3. Boil for 2.5 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter, brandy, and a sprinkle of loaf sugar.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 mixture and help it set firm when cooked.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives the pudding its body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and add a soft, tender crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and bread crumbs.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth tightly over the mold. A loose cloth lets water seep into the pudding while it boils, making it soggy. A snug seal keeps the moisture in and the texture dense and even.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, lemon, egg, sugar, nutmeg, flour, butter. 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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