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Dessert

Maigre Plum Pudding

A custard-like pudding made with milk, mace, lemon peel, eggs, sugar, nutmeg, flour, butter, bread crumbs, currants, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Maigre Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk

  1. Simmer the milk with the mace and lemon peel for 10 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture into a bowl and let it cool.

Make the batter

  1. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the loaf sugar and grated nutmeg.

  2. Gradually add the flour and mix well.

  3. Incorporate the cooled milk, then add the butter, bread crumbs, currants, and raisins.

  4. Stir everything together until well combined.

Boil and serve

  1. Butter a mold, pour in the mixture, and tie a cloth tightly over it.

  2. Boil for 2.5 hours.

  3. Serve with melted butter, brandy, and a sprinkle of loaf sugar.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 give the pudding its set structure as they cook.
Flour
Adds body and structure to the batter so it holds together when boiled.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and add soft body to the pudding.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth tightly over the mold. A tight seal keeps water out during the long boil and stops the pudding from swelling or leaking. Loose covering lets water in and can make the pudding soggy and misshapen.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

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