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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A boiled, spiced fruit pudding made with currants, raisins, almonds, and fortified with brandy, curaçao, and maraschino.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix currants, raisins, bread crumbs, suet, lemon rind, orange peel, citron, sugar, spices, salt, and grated almonds in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the eggs until light.

  3. Pour the beaten eggs over the mixture.

  4. Work the eggs into the mixture thoroughly.

  5. Add brandy, curaçao, and maraschino.

  6. Mix the mixture again until well combined.

Steam the puddings

  1. Pack the mixture into five small buttered bowls, filling them about two-thirds full.

  2. Cover each bowl with a moistened muslin cloth dipped in flour and tie tightly with string.

  3. Place the bowls in a kettle of boiling water.

  4. Ensure the water does not reach above half of the bowls.

  5. Boil the bowls for four to five hours.

  6. Add boiling water as needed to maintain the level.

  7. Remove the bowls from the kettle.

  8. Let the bowls stand for ten hours at room temperature.

  9. Refrigerate the puddings.

  10. Boil the puddings again for three hours before serving.

Serve

  1. Remove the cloth from the pudding.

  2. Turn the pudding out of the bowl.

  3. Cover the pudding with four tablespoons of whiskey.

  4. Set the whiskey on fire.

  5. Serve the pudding immediately.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure and richness to the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Grated almonds
Add body and a tender, moist texture to the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help give the pudding a soft, cohesive texture.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and alcohol.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and helps preserve the pudding.

The step that matters

Keep the water below the bowls' halfway line and replenish it while boiling. Steam heats the sealed bowls gently and evenly; if the water rises above half the bowls it can seep under the cloths, and if it drops too low the pudding cooks unevenly and can scorch or dry out.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, bread, lemon, orange, sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, lemon, orange, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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