Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, flour, breadcrumbs, sugar, egg, and golden syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs and suet.

  2. Mix the chopped figs, suet, flour, bread crumbs, and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Beat the egg.

  4. Add it along with the syrup to the mixture. Mix well.

  5. Pour into a greased basin.

Cook

  1. Cover with grease-proof paper and tie with a cloth.

  2. Boil for two hours or more.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Flour + figtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the bulk structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender texture as it melts during cooking.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set into a cohesive pudding.
Lyle's golden syrup
Adds sweetness, moisture and a caramel-like flavour.
Figs
Contribute natural sweetness, body and the characteristic fruity flavour.

The step that matters

Boil for two hours or more. The pudding must be fully cooked through and set. Keep the water boiling steadily and topped up, since a lower or uneven heat leaves the centre dense and undercooked.

Swap the fig

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

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

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

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes