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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, bread crumbs, suet, sugar, flour, milk, egg, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk 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

Prepare

  1. Grease a basin or mold.

  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg and milk, then pour into the dry mixture and mix well.

  2. The mixture should be rather moist.

Steam and serve

  1. Put it into the mold and cover with greased paper for steaming.

  2. If boiling, tie a pudding cloth over the mold and cook for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. When done, remove the paper or cloth, turn the pudding onto a hot dish, and serve plain or with lemon 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. Fig + milktop 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. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fig + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main flavour and sweetness, and moisture throughout the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Give the pudding its body and absorb the liquid so it holds together.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and tender as it steams.
Flour
Helps set the pudding structure as the batter cooks.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds richness and structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking to lift the pudding and lighten its texture.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture rather moist. Bread crumbs and flour absorb liquid as they sit and steam, so a stiff batter can turn dense and dry. The batter should stay loose enough to hold its moisture through the long steaming.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, flour, 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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