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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, bread crumbs, suet, milk, flour, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the figs

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped figs and milk and stew for 15 minutes.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, flour, suet, sugar, and nutmeg.

  2. Add the stewed figs and milk to the dry mixture, then add the beaten eggs. Mix thoroughly with a fork.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter a pudding basin and pour the mixture in.

  2. Place the basin in a saucepan with boiling water and steam for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with sweet 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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavour and moisture, softened by stewing in milk.
Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm during steaming.
Flour
Gives the pudding body and structure as the starch sets with heat.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add a light, soft texture to the pudding.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the suet and figs.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. The basin must be steamed over water that keeps boiling for the full time. Steady gentle heat cooks the eggs and starch through evenly, while a drop in temperature leaves the centre dense and wet.

Swap the fig

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

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

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

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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