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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, molasses, sour milk, fruit, nuts, suet, flour, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,230 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, black molasses, sour milk, mixed fruit, chopped walnuts, chopped suet, flour, grated nutmeg, assorted spices, and dissolved baking soda.

  2. Stir the mixture well until fully combined.

Steam and serve

  1. Wrap a cloth around the tin after dipping it in hot water, dredge the inside with flour, and place the pudding mixture inside.

  2. Tie the cloth tightly, leaving room for the pudding to swell.

  3. Steam the pudding for 5 to 6 hours.

  4. Serve with brandy 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. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Black molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a rich, deep sweetness.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda so the pudding rises and softens.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together after steaming.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.

The step that matters

Leave room for the pudding to swell. The batter rises as the baking soda reacts with the sour milk and the steam expands it. Tying the cloth too tightly can trap that expansion and squeeze the pudding, leaving it dense or misshapen.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, molasses, milk, flour, nutmeg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Milletfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, milk, flour, 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 plum pudding recipes

English 165Christmas 156Sauce 71Eggless 34Baked 33Vegetable 19 See all 649 →

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