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Combination Roly-poly

A fruit-filled pudding rolled in suet or pastry dough and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Combination Roly-poly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the figs, dates, and plums into small pieces.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped fruits, brown sugar, and spices.

  3. If desired, add lemon rind or reduce apples and add marmalade.

Roll and boil

  1. Prepare a suet or pastry dough for rolling.

  2. Spread the mixture onto the dough and roll it up tightly.

  3. Boil the pudding longer than a jam roll until cooked through.

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. Plum + appletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

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

  2. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Fig + plumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together32 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Fig + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the fruit mixture become soft and sticky.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and a soft, moist texture to the filling.
Figs
Add body, chewiness and sweetness to the fruit filling.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart freshness that keeps the filling from being cloying.

The step that matters

Rolling the pudding tightly. A tight, even roll keeps the filling from spreading and leaving gaps. Gaps let water and steam escape unevenly, so the pudding can cook unevenly or come out loose.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, plum, sugar, raisin, apple, nutmeg, ginger):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, plum, sugar, raisin, apple, nutmeg, 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.

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