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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A baked pudding made with figs, apples, suet, eggs, flour, sugar, bread crumbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 238 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs, apples, and suet finely.

  2. Mix the chopped ingredients with sugar, bread crumbs, flour, salt, and nutmeg.

  3. Beat the eggs until light, then add them along with enough milk to moisten the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Press the mixture into a buttered mold and boil for four hours.

  2. Serve hot 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 + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (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 body, sweetness and fruity flavor of the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it hold its shape when cooked.
Bread crumbs
Soak up moisture and give the pudding a soft, tender body.
Flour
Adds structure, helping the pudding set firm enough to hold its shape.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding brown slightly at the surface.

The step that matters

Press the mixture into a buttered mold and boil for four hours. The mold must be packed firmly and sealed so steam cooks the pudding evenly without water seeping in. Gentle, steady boiling over the full four hours lets the suet melt and the starches set into a cohesive, moist pudding.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

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