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Dessert

Blight House Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with grated bread, sugar, dried fruit, citron, suet or butter, eggs, lemon zest, nutmeg, brandy, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Blight House Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease the inside of a pudding cloth well.

  2. Tie the pudding tightly, leaving no room to swell.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil for five hours.

  2. Just before serving, pour a glass of brandy over the pudding and set it on fire.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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 give the pudding structure as they set.
Grated bread
Adds body and absorbs liquid, giving the pudding a soft, crumbly texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the flavour.
Suet or butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Currants
Add sweetness, moisture and chewy fruit pieces throughout.
Raisins
Add sweetness, moisture and chewy fruit pieces throughout.

The step that matters

Setting the brandy alight. Alcohol burns as vapour, and a cold spirit gives off little vapour, so it may not catch. Warming the brandy slightly helps it ignite. Pour carefully and keep flames away from hair and clothing.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, raisin, egg, lemon, nutmeg, brandy. 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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