Skip to main content
Dessert

Virginia Christmas Pudding

A steamed pudding made with carrots, potatoes, suet, flour, bread crumbs, sugar, raisins, currants, figs, citron, spices, eggs, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Virginia Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the eggs thoroughly, then add the brown sugar and beat for ten minutes.

  2. Add the coarse sea salt and spices.

  3. Add the grated carrot, grated potato, and bread crumbs.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together.

  5. Sprinkle a little of the sifted mixture over the fruit and suet.

  6. Stir everything together.

Steam and serve

  1. Butter and flour a mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for 2.5 hours.

  3. Serve with a rich 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Carrot + figtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together37 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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 the pudding steams and sets.
Suet
Adds fat and richness, keeping the pudding moist as it steams.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten in texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps give a deeper flavor.
Grated potato
Adds moisture and body to the batter, keeping the pudding tender.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs and sugar. Beating eggs thoroughly and then beating in the sugar traps air in the batter. This airiness helps the pudding rise and gives it a lighter crumb, so the batter should not be rushed.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, potato, flour, bread, sugar, raisin, fig):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, potato, flour, bread, sugar, raisin, fig. 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 christmas pudding recipes

Sauce 4Cottage 4Apple 3 See all 175 →

You might also like

Orange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesDeep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipes