Why it works: Plum and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,313 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Plum-pudding of Fresh Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Roll out the suet crust to about ½ inch thick.
Line a pudding basin with the rolled crust.
Fill and seal
Fill the basin with the plums and add the sugar on top.
Cover the filling with more crust, folding the edges over and pinching them to seal.
Boil and serve
Tie a floured cloth over the basin and place it in boiling water.
Boil for 2 to 2.5 hours.
Turn the pudding out of the basin and serve immediately.
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.
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Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,313 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Suet crust
- Forms the outer casing that holds the filling and steams to a tender, rich wrapper.
- Plums
- Provide the fruit filling, adding moisture and a tart-sweet flavour as they cook.
- Moist sugar
- Sweetens the filling and adds molasses-like depth, helping the fruit soften into a syrup.
The step that matters
Sealing the crust over the filling. If the edges are not pinched firmly, water and steam can escape or boiling water can seep in, leaving the filling soggy or the pudding falling apart when turned out.
“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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