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Dessert

Ingredienti of a Christmas Plum Pudding

A steamed plum pudding made with lemon rind, spices, flour, breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, and brandy.

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

Ingredienti of a Christmas Plum Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated lemon rind, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, flour, bread crumbs, lemon juice, brandy, and beaten eggs.

  2. Add the milk and mix well with a wooden spoon for 20 minutes.

Steam and boil

  1. Grease a quart basin or mold with butter and pour in the mixture.

  2. Cover with a clean cloth dusted with flour and place in boiling water.

  3. Boil for 6 hours, ensuring the water remains boiling.

  4. Alternatively, tie the pudding in a buttered and floured cloth, place a plate in the saucepan to prevent burning, and boil as directed.

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

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

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and set the pudding structure as it cooks.
Flour
Provides the main structure of the pudding once cooked.
Bread crumbs
Add body and soak up liquid, giving a softer, tender crumb.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the pudding.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the batter.

The step that matters

Keep the water boiling for the full 6 hours. If the water drops below a boil, the pudding cooks unevenly and turns heavy and wet. Steady boiling keeps the heat constant so the batter sets through.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, flour, bread, brandy, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, flour, bread, brandy, egg. 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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