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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A baked pudding made with bread crumbs, sugar, suet or butter, milk, eggs, chopped figs, salt, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and fig are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, sugar, suet (or butter), milk, eggs, chopped figs, salt, and spices, then mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a mold or suitable pot.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for 2 hours.

  2. Serve with brandy 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. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Bread + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and body that hold the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it cooks.
Suet
Adds richness and a tender, moist texture to the pudding.
Figs
Provide the main flavour and natural sweetness, plus moist pieces throughout.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the pudding a rich, deep flavour.

The step that matters

Boil for 2 hours. Steaming or boiling slowly and for the full time lets the eggs and crumbs set gently into a moist, cohesive pudding. Boiling too hard or letting the pot boil dry can crack the mold or scorch the base.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Pumpkinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, beef, milk, egg. 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 fig pudding recipes

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