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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with flour, suet, baking powder, eggs, milk, bread crumbs, brown sugar, and chopped figs.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add the bread crumbs and brown sugar.

  3. Mix in the suet and chopped figs.

  4. Stir all ingredients together.

  5. Add the beaten egg and milk. Mix well.

Steam and serve

  1. Turn the mixture into a well-greased mold.

  2. Steam for 3 hours.

  3. Serve with nutmeg 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. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

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

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking so the pudding rises and becomes light.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firm as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving a soft, tender crumb.
Figs
Add natural sweetness, chewy texture, and a fruity flavor.

The step that matters

Steam for 3 hours. Steaming gently and steadily cooks the pudding through without drying it out. If the water boils dry or the steam drops, the pudding can turn dense or underdone in the center, so the pot needs to be topped up with water as needed.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, beef, egg, milk, bread, 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.

More fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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