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Dessert

Christmas Pudding

A rich fruit pudding made with figs, raisins, currants, sultanas, candied peel, almonds, pine kernels, Brazil nuts, butter, sugar, apples, honey, eggs, lemon, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and brazil nut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and nuts

  1. Mince the figs.

  2. Peel, core, and chop the apples.

  3. Chop the almonds, pine kernels, and Brazil nuts.

  4. Clean the fruit and chop or shred the candied peel.

Mix and fill the molds

  1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.

  2. Add the honey and lemon juice to the dry mixture.

  3. Beat the eggs and stir them into the mixture until well combined.

  4. Fill 1 or 2 buttered molds with the mixture and tie a buttered cloth over them.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil the molds for 3 hours.

  2. Once done, unmold, dish up, and serve with a suitable sauce or custard.

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. Almond + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together68 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Pine + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Almond + pinetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set firm as it cooks.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding its body and structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, more tender texture.
Moist or brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the pudding's deep colour.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the pudding stay tender.
Sultanas
Provide sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil the molds for 3 hours. The pudding must be sealed in its buttered cloth and kept at a steady simmer. Boiling gently and consistently cooks the eggs and starches through without drying the pudding or letting water seep in.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, raisin, almond, pine, butter, brazil nut, lemon):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, raisin, almond, pine, butter, brazil nut, lemon. 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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