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Dessert

English Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, sugar, flour, eggs, molasses, and flavored with orange or lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 407 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

English Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine figs, suet, sugar, flour, beaten eggs, and molasses.

  2. Mix well and add orange or lemon flavoring to taste.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold.

  2. Steam the pudding for 3 to 4 hours.

  3. Serve hot with 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. Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Fig + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Suet
Adds richness and fat, keeping the pudding moist and tender.
Flour
Provides the body that holds the pudding together after steaming.
Figs
Contribute chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the pudding.
Molasses
Adds depth, dark color, and moisture to the dense pudding.

The step that matters

Steam the pudding for 3 to 4 hours. Steaming gently cooks the egg-thickened batter through without drying it out. Keeping the water at a steady simmer and topping it up prevents the pudding from turning dry or heavy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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