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Dessert

Christmas Pudding

A steamed pudding made with eggs, suet, crackers, raisins, spices, and condensed milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Christmas Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Dilute the condensed milk with water.

  2. Beat the eggs until very light, then add half of the milk and beat together.

  3. Gradually stir in the crackers, suet, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and raisins.

  4. Finally, add the remaining milk.

Steam and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and steam for six hours.

  2. Serve with vanilla 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during steaming.
Crackers
Provide bulk and absorb liquid to give the pudding body.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and rich in texture.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the pudding.
Condensed milk
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the pudding stay soft and tender.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into a pudding mold and steam for six hours. Steam must be kept steady for the full time so the eggs set and the pudding cooks through evenly without drying out.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, egg, clove, condensed milk, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, egg, clove, condensed milk, 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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