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Dessert

Boiled Fig Pudding

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

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 ↓

Boiled Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Mix all ingredients well.

  2. Steam the mixture for 3 hours.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, beat 2 eggs separately until very light.

  2. Add 1 cup sugar to the beaten eggs and beat again.

  3. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Stale bread crumbs
Provide body and absorb the milk, giving the pudding a soft, light structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set as it cooks, giving it structure.
Figs
Add natural sweetness, moisture and flavor to the pudding.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and the sauce.
Baking powder
Releases gas during cooking, helping the pudding rise and become lighter.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs for the sauce until very light. Beating eggs incorporates air and makes a light, foamy base. Under-beating leaves the sauce dense and flat, while the sugar added afterward helps the foam hold its volume.

Swap the fig

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, cream, bread, milk, egg, sugar, 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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