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Dessert

Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, apples, suet, sugar, bread crumbs, flour, eggs, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 238 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pudding

  1. Chop the figs and mix them with the minced apples, suet, sugar, bread crumbs, and a little flour.

  2. Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture along with the grated nutmeg. Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a pudding mold.

Cook

  1. Boil or steam for 4 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. Fig + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

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

  2. Fig + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Fig + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavour and sweetness, and soft body to the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the pudding a light, soft structure.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pudding taste rounded.

The step that matters

Boil or steam for 4 hours. Long, gentle moist heat cooks the eggs and starches through and keeps the pudding tender. Letting the water boil dry or the mold sit uncovered can leave it dry or unevenly set.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Applethe original

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

More fig pudding recipes

Steamed 14Sauce 7English 3 See all 340 →

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