Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig and Raisin Pudding

A steamed pudding made with bread crumbs, milk, eggs, suet, flour, baking powder, figs, and raisins.

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

Fig and Raisin Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk for 1 hour.

  2. Beat the eggs until very light and stir them into the soaked bread crumbs.

  3. Add the powdered suet, flour, and baking powder; mix well.

  4. Combine the figs and raisins, dredge with flour, and fold into the batter.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a large pudding mold, leaving space for it to swell.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Turn out from the mold, place in the oven for 5 minutes, and serve with a liquid 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. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  3. Milk + figtop 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. Bread + figtop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add lightness and structure when beaten until very light.
Bread crumbs
Soak up milk to form a moist, tender body for the pudding.
Powdered suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the pudding rise and swell.
Figs
Add sweetness, soft texture and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the pudding.

The step that matters

Leave room in the mold. The batter rises and swells as it steams, so filling the mold too full can cause it to overflow or cook unevenly. Leaving space lets the leavening work without forcing the pudding out of its shape.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figthe original
  3. Datesfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, egg, flour, raisin. 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.

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes