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Dessert

Christmas Pudding

A fruit-based Christmas pudding made with figs, raisins, currants, sultanas, candied peel, nuts, apples, honey, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and brazil nut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Mince the figs.

  2. Peel, core, and chop the apples.

  3. Chop the almonds, pine kernels, and Brazil nuts.

  4. Clean the fruit and chop or shred the candied peel.

Mix and fill

  1. In a basin, combine all dry ingredients. Add honey and lemon juice.

  2. Beat the eggs and stir into the mixture.

  3. Fill 1 or 2 buttered molds with the mixture.

Boil and serve

  1. Tie over with a buttered cloth and boil for 3 hours.

  2. When done, unmold, dish up, and serve with sauce or custard.

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. Almond + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together68 recipes

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

  2. Pine + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Almond + pinetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

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

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 help it hold its shape after boiling.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and a soft texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a moister, more tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavour.
Figs
Add sweetness and a soft, jammy texture to the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew and moisture through the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 3 hours. The pudding must cook through gently for the full time so the eggs set and the dense fruit and crumb become tender. Keep the cloth well tied and the water topped up so the molds stay submerged and the heat stays steady.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, raisin, almond, pine, butter, brazil nut, lemon):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, raisin, almond, pine, butter, brazil nut, lemon. 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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