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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, flour, spices, sugar, almonds, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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

  1. Combine all the dried fruits, mixed peels, suet, flour, lemon rind, spices, sugar, almonds, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Add the brandy and enough milk to form a solid mass.

Cook

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pudding cloth or mold.

  2. Boil for 4 to 5 hours in a large pot of water.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it cooks.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Raisins
Contribute moisture and sweetness throughout the pudding.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning in the finished pudding.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the pudding.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 to 5 hours in a large pot of water. The pudding must stay submerged and boil steadily for the full time. Water that drops below a simmer or lets the cloth float out of it cooks the pudding unevenly, leaving it dense or undercooked in places.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Cranberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, orange, lemon, flour, cinnamon, clove, 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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