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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, bread crumbs, molasses, raisins, currants, spices, milk, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beef suet, bread crumbs, molasses, raisins, currants, salt, cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and baking soda.

  2. Add the milk and mix well.

  3. Gradually add flour until you achieve a stiff batter.

Steam

  1. Grease a pudding mold and pour in the mixture.

  2. Steam the pudding for at least 4 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds richness and moisture, and keeps the pudding tender as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Give the batter body and help it hold its shape while steaming.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a deep flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the texture.
Flour
Provides structure so the batter sets into a stiff, sliceable pudding.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for at least 4 hours. Steaming gently and for a long time cooks the batter through evenly and sets its structure. Letting the water boil dry or stopping early can leave the centre dense and undercooked.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, molasses, raisin, clove, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, molasses, raisin, clove, cinnamon, allspice. 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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