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Dessert

English Xmas Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, citrus peel, suet, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

English Xmas Plum Pudding

2 large puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine raisins, currants, citron or lemon peel, sugar, crumbled bread, eggs, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, beef suet, butter, and flour.

  2. Mix thoroughly, adding enough milk or water to achieve a batter-like consistency.

Cook

  1. Transfer the mixture into a pudding bag and tie securely.

  2. Boil the pudding in water for 4 hours.

  3. This recipe makes 2 large puddings, which can be stored steamed for up to a month.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dried fruit and crumbs together and help set the pudding as it cooks.
Flour
Provides the body and structure that holds the pudding together after boiling.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it steams.
Bread
Soaks up moisture and keeps the pudding light and tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and dried fruit.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the pudding.

The step that matters

Adding milk or water to the batter. The batter needs enough liquid to reach a loose, batter-like consistency. Too little leaves the pudding dry and dense, while too much makes it heavy and wet, so the mixture should be checked by feel before bagging.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, lemon, sugar, bread, egg, clove, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, lemon, sugar, bread, egg, clove, cinnamon. 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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