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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A pudding made with figs, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, milk, spice, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,026 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the suet and figs very fine.

Make and cook the pudding

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped suet, figs, bread crumbs, sugar, eggs, milk, and spice.

  2. Mix well and pour into a pudding mold.

  3. Boil for three hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with wine 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 + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fig + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together195 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

Suet
Adds richness and a moist, tender crumb as it melts during cooking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and structure.
Figs
Provide sweetness, fruit flavor, and moisture to the pudding.
Milk
Moistens the batter and helps form a soft, cohesive texture.

The step that matters

Pack the pudding mold properly before boiling. The batter must fill the mold without large air gaps so the pudding cooks evenly and holds its shape when unmolded. Boiling must also be kept steady so water does not seep into the mold.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, egg, milk, wine. 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

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