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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed or boiled dessert made with raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, sugar, spices, eggs, and citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Combine raisins, currants, suet, bread crumbs, brown sugar, flour, lemon rinds, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, eggs, orange juice, brandy or water, candied orange peel, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well until all ingredients are fully combined.

  2. Add eggs and brandy to the batter last.

Cook and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture into covered tin cans or bags.

  2. Steam for 5 hours or boil in bags for 4 to 5 hours.

  3. Before serving, steam for an additional hour.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Melts during cooking to keep the pudding moist and rich.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help give the pudding its set structure.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding body and structure.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew, and moisture to the pudding.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper molasses flavour.
Flour
Adds structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.

The step that matters

Add eggs and brandy to the batter last. Eggs are added at the end so the batter is not overmixed or overworked, and the eggs stay evenly distributed rather than setting early. Brandy is added at the end so its alcohol and aroma are not lost early in the process.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, bread, sugar, flour, lemon, nutmeg, 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.

More plum pudding recipes

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

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