Name: Fig Pudding
Ingredients: 2 oz chopped suet; 3 oz chopped figs; 3 oz bread crumbs; 2 oz sugar; 2 oz flour; 1 egg; ½ cup milk; Nutmeg to taste

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

In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg and add the milk.
Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.
Grease a mold and pour in the mixture.

Cook and serve

Steam for 2 hours.
Turn out and serve with custard 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.

Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together510 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,026 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fig + breadtop 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

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Egg: Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as it cooks.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and give the pudding its soft, light body.
Figs: Provide sweetness and a chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Flour: Adds structure so the pudding holds its shape when turned out.

Swap the fig

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figthe original
Lemonfits less well

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