Skip to main content
Dessert

National Plum Pudding

A suet-based plum pudding with raisins, currants, spices, and eggs, boiled for five hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and mace 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 ↓

National Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix suet, jar raisin, currants, bread crumbs, sugar, lemon peel, nutmeg, mace, and ginger in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs well and add them to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a cloth, tie it securely, and boil for five hours.

  2. Serve with a sauce made of brandy, sugar, nutmeg, and melted butter if desired.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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 add structure as the pudding sets.
Suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender during long cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft texture.
Currants
Provide chewy fruit pieces and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the suet and fruit.

The step that matters

Securing the cloth. If the cloth is not tied tightly, water can seep into the pudding during the long boil, making it soggy and loose. A snug, well-sealed wrap keeps the mixture compact and moist while it cooks.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, mace, ginger):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, mace, ginger. 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.

More plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

You might also like

Soft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesGingerbreadGingerbread25 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipes