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Dessert

French Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, bread crumbs, flour, eggs, milk, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

French Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, rub together the flour, suet, salt, and brown sugar.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, chopped figs, baking powder, and nutmeg; mix well.

  3. Beat the eggs until light, then add the milk and mix into the dry ingredients.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered basin and cover with buttered paper.

  2. Steam for 6 hours without stopping.

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. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried figs
Provide the main sweetness, moisture and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender while steaming.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and add structure as the pudding sets.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding a light, soft body.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the pudding together.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Steam for 6 hours without stopping. Steaming gently and continuously cooks the batter evenly and keeps the pudding moist. Letting the water boil dry or the steam drop can leave the pudding dense or unevenly cooked.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, flour, egg, nutmeg, milk):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, flour, egg, nutmeg, milk. 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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