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Dessert

Whole Wheat Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with whole wheat breadcrumbs, butter, sugar, figs, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Combine grated bread crumbs and softened butter in a bowl, rubbing until well mixed.

  2. Add sugar, chopped figs, beaten egg, and milk to the mixture, stirring until combined.

Steam

  1. Transfer mixture to a pudding mold and steam for three 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Wheat + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together70 recipes

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

  5. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the mixture and sets as it cooks, giving the pudding its body.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb by coating the bread crumbs with fat.
Whole wheat bread crumbs
Provide the bulk and structure, soaking up the milk and liquid.
Figs
Add sweetness, moisture, and a soft, chewy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the pudding moist and tender.
Milk
Supplies moisture that softens the crumbs and loosens the batter.

The step that matters

Steam for three hours. Gentle, moist heat sets the beaten egg slowly and evenly while keeping the bread crumbs and figs from drying out, giving a tender pudding.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

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