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Dessert

Rich Plum Pudding

A rich, spiced fruit pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, almonds, preserved citrus, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rich Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stone the raisins and wash the currants thoroughly.

  2. Chop the beef suet very small.

  3. Blanch and chop the sweet and bitter almonds.

Make the pudding

  1. Mix the chopped almonds with the flour and soaked bread crumbs until smooth.

  2. Add the preserved citron, orange, and lemon peel, and mixed spice to the mixture.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together until well combined.

  4. Stir the egg mixture into the pudding mixture, adding milk to achieve a thick batter consistency.

  5. Pour the brandy over the fruit and spice mixture, and let it sit for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Boil and serve

  1. Tie the pudding mixture in a cloth and boil for 5 hours.

  2. Once done, turn it out onto a dish, sift powdered sugar over the top, and serve with wine sauce.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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 into a firm, sliceable pudding when boiled.
Bread crumbs
Soak up milk to add moisture and a tender body to the batter.
Flour
Provides the starch that gives the pudding its structure as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist during long boiling.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the pudding.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture while contributing to a deep, rich flavour.

The step that matters

Tie the pudding mixture in a cloth and boil for 5 hours.. The cloth must be tied firmly enough to hold the batter's shape but loosely enough for the pudding to swell. Keep the water at a steady boil so the pudding cooks evenly through without drying out or turning heavy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, beef, almond, flour, bread, milk, orange):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, almond, flour, bread, milk, orange. 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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