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Plum-pudding

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum-pudding

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Clean the currants.

  2. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk.

  3. Add the egg yolks and all other ingredients, straining the molasses and sifting together the flour and baking powder.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites last.

  5. Fill a well-greased pudding mold or tin kettle with a cover no more than two-thirds full.

  6. Fit the cover tightly and boil in a large pot of boiling water for 3 hours and 30 minutes.

  7. To serve, place a sprig of holly on top, pour a little brandy over the pudding, and ignite it just before serving.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, cinnamon, milk, bread, molasses, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More plum pudding recipes

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