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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A traditional British plum pudding made with dried fruit, suet, bread, eggs, spices, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a large bowl, combine the raisins, currants, suet, and grated bread.

  2. Beat the eggs and add the reserved egg whites.

  3. Mix in the wine and brandy.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients along with cinnamon, nutmeg, citron, flour, milk or cream, and salt, then mix thoroughly until well combined.

Boil

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold and secure tightly.

  2. Boil in a large pot of water for about three hours.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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 as they set during cooking.
Grated bread
Absorbs liquid and gives the pudding body and a tender crumb.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
All-purpose flour
Helps thicken the mixture and gives it structure.

The step that matters

Securing the pudding cloth or mold. If the cloth or mold is not sealed tightly, water can enter during boiling and make the pudding soggy and diluted. A tight seal keeps the moisture and flavor inside while the pudding steams.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, egg, bread, wine, brandy, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, egg, bread, wine, brandy, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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.

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