Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with beef suet, figs, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, sugar, and salt.

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

Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop and cream the beef suet.

  2. Add the finely chopped figs and mix thoroughly.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the bread crumbs, well-beaten eggs, milk, sugar, and salt. Mix all ingredients together well.

Steam and serve

  1. Place the mixture in a buttered pudding dish and steam for several hours.

  2. Serve with a fancy 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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and eggs to give the pudding body and structure.
Figs
Add fruit sweetness, flavour and soft texture throughout the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and adds to its flavour and browning.

The step that matters

Steam for several hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the eggs and crumbs through without drying the pudding. Low, even heat sets the custard-like batter evenly, while a boiling or dry pot can leave the edges overcooked or the centre raw.

Swap the fig

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

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

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