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Dessert

Fig Pudding

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and milk 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. Pour boiling milk over chopped figs.

  2. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, brown sugar, eggs, salt, and chopped suet.

  3. Mix in the fig and milk mixture until well combined.

Cook and serve

  1. Steam or boil for 4 hours.

  2. Serve 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 + milktop 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. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Fig + sugartop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Add fruity sweetness and soft, moist pieces throughout the pudding.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the pudding its body and structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper, molasses-like flavor.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding rich and moist during long cooking.

The step that matters

Steaming for 4 hours. The pudding sets slowly and needs gentle, steady heat for the full time. Letting it cook too fast or dry out can leave it heavy, uneven, or crumbly.

Swap the fig

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

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

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