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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, bread crumbs, flour, eggs, milk, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, rub together the flour, suet, salt, and brown sugar.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, chopped figs, baking powder, and nutmeg to the mixture.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until light and mix in the milk.

  4. Combine the egg mixture with the dry ingredients and mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered basin and cover with buttered paper.

  2. Steam for six hours.

  3. Serve with hard 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 + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Fig + milktop 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. Fig + breadtop 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a light, tender body.
Dried figs
Add sweetness, chewy texture, and bulk to the pudding.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the pudding rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Steam for six hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the batter through without drying it out. Letting the water boil dry or the steam drop can leave the pudding dense or underdone.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, flour, egg, nutmeg, milk. 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 →

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