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Dessert

A Rich Plum Pudding

A sweet, fruit‑laden pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, candied fruit, almonds, and spices, boiled and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Rich Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine the raisins, currants, beef suet, pounded almonds, candied citron, orange peel, lemon peel, salt, nutmeg, sugar, and flour in a large bowl.

  2. Add the brandy and beaten eggs, mixing until well combined.

  3. Adjust thickness with cream or milk as needed.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a cloth and tie it securely.

  2. Boil the wrapped pudding for 5 hours.

  3. Serve with melted butter over the pudding, or pour the mixture into a mold and bake.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Flour
Provides the body that holds the fruit and suet together.
Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture to the pudding.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning when baked.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the pudding.

The step that matters

Tying the cloth securely. If the cloth is loose, water can seep into the pudding during the long boil, making it soggy and diluting its flavor. A firm, well-sealed wrap keeps the pudding compact and moist.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, beef, almond, orange, lemon, nutmeg, sugar):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, beef, almond, orange, lemon, nutmeg, sugar. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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