Why it works: Milk and plum work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 406 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Plum Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine the milk, eggs, plums, suet, and sugar. Mix well until all ingredients are fully incorporated.
Wet a pudding bag and fill it with the mixture.
Cook and serve
Tie the bag securely and boil in a pot of water for 3 hours.
Serve with your choice of sauce.
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.
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Milk + plumtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together406 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,313 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 help it set into a firm, sliceable pudding as it cooks.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
- Plums
- Provide fruit flavour and moisture throughout the pudding.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the tartness of the plums.
- Milk
- Adds liquid that hydrates the mixture and gives a soft, tender texture.
The step that matters
Sealing the pudding bag. A loose or poorly tied bag lets boiling water seep in, diluting the batter and making the pudding soggy. A secure seal keeps the mixture contained while it cooks.
Swap the plum
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Plumthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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