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Dessert

Pig Pudding No. 1

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, brown sugar, bread crumbs, eggs, lemon, nutmeg, and flour, served with vanilla‑flavored whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pig Pudding No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the figs and suet finely.

  2. In a bowl, combine figs, suet, brown sugar, bread crumbs, eggs, lemon rind and juice, nutmeg, and flour. Mix well until combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam the mixture for 3 hours.

  2. Serve with whipped cream lightly flavored with vanilla.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds fat that melts during steaming, keeping the pudding moist and rich.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it steams into a firm, sliceable pudding.
Bread crumbs
Provide bulk and absorb moisture, giving the pudding a light, tender body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
Figs
Contribute sweetness, chewy texture, and fruity flavor throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Chop the figs and suet finely. Fine, even pieces distribute evenly through the batter and melt or soften uniformly during the long steam, so the pudding has consistent texture rather than greasy or hard pockets.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

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