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Dessert

Light Fruit Pudding

A baked fruit pudding made with bread dough, sugar, butter, eggs, spices, currants, raisins, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Light Fruit Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

  1. In a large bowl, combine the bread dough, sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda, wine or brandy, and spices.

  2. Fold in the currants, raisins, and chopped citron.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish.

  4. Bake carefully to avoid a hard crust, until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with wine 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Light bread dough
Provides the base body and soft crumb of the pudding.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set it into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the surface.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic wine or brandy to lighten the pudding.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout.

The step that matters

Bake carefully to avoid a hard crust, until set. Baking at moderate heat lets the eggs set gently throughout while the surface stays tender. Overbaking or high heat causes the egg proteins to tighten and the outer layer to dry and harden, so the pudding should be checked until just set in the centre.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, butter, egg, wine, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, egg, wine, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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