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Dessert

English Plum Pudding

A boiled pudding made with raisins, currants, suet, spices, fruit, sugar, bread crumbs, eggs, and optional brandy or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

English Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Soak the raisins in brandy if desired.

  2. Mix together the raisins, currants, suet, flour, citron, almonds, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt, orange rind and juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, and bread crumbs.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and brandy and sherry if using.

  4. Add enough milk to moisten the mixture.

Steam and reheat

  1. Transfer to a mold and boil for 10 hours.

  2. If not used the same day, boil again for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Do not open the mold after the first boiling.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the pudding tender as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help set the pudding as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the pudding its body and structure.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth of flavor.
Raisins
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Do not open the mold after the first boiling. Opening the mold releases steam and lets the pudding cool and dry unevenly, which can make it dense. Keeping it sealed preserves moisture during the long boil and reheating.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, brandy, beef, flour, almond, nutmeg, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, brandy, beef, flour, almond, 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.

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