Skip to main content
Dessert

Xmas Plum Pudding

A rich, fruit‑laden pudding made with breadcrumbs, raisins, currants, sultanas, almonds, Brazil nuts, citrus peel, pine kernels, sugar, butter, eggs, and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Xmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the sweet almonds and Brazil nuts very small.

  2. Chop the pine kernels.

  3. Rub the butter into the breadcrumbs.

Mix and boil

  1. Add all the other ingredients and mix well with the beaten eggs.

  2. Boil in a large pot for 6 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. 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. Lemon + pinetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together480 recipes

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

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 set as they cook, giving the pudding its structure.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft, crumbly texture.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, coating the crumbs and softening the mixture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses note, and helps keep the pudding moist.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the pudding.
Sweet almonds
Add fat and a nutty flavour, with a fine texture once ground.

The step that matters

Boil in a large pot for 6 hours. Eggs set as they heat, so long, steady cooking is needed to cook the pudding through evenly. A rolling boil that is too fierce can break up the mixture and make the texture uneven.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipes