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Dessert

Plum Pudding

A steamed pudding made with suet, raisins, currants, molasses, milk, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the suet, raisins, currants, molasses, milk, baking soda, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and flour until well combined.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased pudding mold.

  3. Cover the mold with a cloth and steam for 3 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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

Suet
Adds richness and fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender during steaming.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the pudding together as it steams.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses' acidity to help the pudding rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Steaming the pudding. Steam must be kept steadily going for the full 3 hours, since the pudding sets slowly and gently as heat penetrates the mold. Letting the water boil dry or lowering the heat too much can leave the centre dense and underdone.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, molasses, milk, allspice, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, molasses, milk, allspice, clove, cinnamon, 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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