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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with bread, raisins, molasses, milk, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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

  1. Butter a pan well and layer slices of bread and raisins, occasionally buttering a slice of bread, until the dish is full.

  2. Pour 3 cups of milk over the layers and let it stand overnight.

Steam and serve

  1. In the morning, beat the eggs, add molasses, spices, and the remaining cup of milk, then pour over the pudding.

  2. Tie a wet cloth over the top, place in a kettle of water, and boil for five to six 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the body of the pudding, soaking up the milk and custard to hold its shape.
Eggs
Set with heat to bind the pudding into a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Soaks the bread and, with the eggs, forms the custard that fills the pudding.
Raisins
Provide chewy pockets of sweetness distributed through the pudding.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a dark color to the custard.

The step that matters

Boil for five to six hours in a kettle of water. The pudding must cook gently and steadily for the full time so the eggs set throughout. Letting the water drop too low or boil away can leave the center wet or underdone.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, clove, nutmeg, egg, milk, cinnamon, molasses):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Applefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, clove, nutmeg, egg, milk, cinnamon, molasses. 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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