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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with currants, raisins, citron, bread crumbs, suet, almonds, sugar, eggs, milk, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Mix currants, raisins, citron, bread crumbs, suet, sweet almonds, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl.

  2. Add eggs and milk, then mix until well combined.

  3. Stir in brandy and fold in the egg whites last.

Cook

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.

  2. Boil for 4 to 5 hours.

Prepare ahead

  1. Prepare the pudding the night before serving.

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

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

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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 it into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and absorb the liquid, giving the pudding a soft, cohesive body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during long cooking.
Raisins
Provide sweetness, chewy texture and moisture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist.
Baking soda
Helps the pudding rise and become lighter in texture.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites last. Folding gently keeps the beaten air in the egg whites, which helps the pudding stay light. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam and makes the texture denser.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, almond, sugar, egg, milk, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, almond, sugar, egg, milk, brandy. 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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