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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, breadcrumbs, flour, suet, sugar, salt, nutmeg, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix figs, breadcrumbs, flour, beef suet, sugar, salt, and nutmeg.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg and milk until well combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Grease a basin and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Steam for about 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Serve with custard or 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. 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

Figs
Provide the main sweetness, fruit flavour and moist, chewy texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and helps it set as it cooks.
Flour
Gives the pudding structure so it holds its shape when steamed.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and soak up moisture, giving a light, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Steam for the full time. Steaming cooks the pudding gently and evenly, with the water surrounding the basin. Cutting the time short leaves the centre set poorly and dense, so keep the pot covered and topped up with boiling water throughout.

Swap the fig

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

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

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