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Dessert

Steamed Fig Pudding

A steamed pudding made with figs, suet, milk, corn syrup, stale bread crumbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 510 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Steamed Fig Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the figs, discard the hardened stem, and cut them into tiny pieces.

  2. Remove connective tissue from the suet and chop it finely.

  3. Mix the dry ingredients: bread crumbs, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt.

  4. Beat the egg, then add the milk and corn syrup, mixing well.

Steam and serve

  1. Combine all ingredients and pack into a greased mold.

  2. Steam for 2 hours.

  3. Serve with Hard Sauce flavored with orange or lemon.

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 + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together510 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Corn + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Corn + figtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Figs
Provide the main fruit flavor and moist, chewy body throughout the pudding.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it steams.
Bread crumbs
Provide bulk and structure, soaking up liquid to hold the pudding together.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together so the pudding sets firm when steamed.
Corn syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the pudding stay soft.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming, giving the pudding a light, open crumb.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, corn, syrup, bread, fig):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, corn, syrup, bread, fig. 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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