Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cocoanut Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the pudding
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs, sugar, and salt until light.
Add hot milk, shredded coconut, and cracker crumbs; mix well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake for 35 minutes.
Make the sauce and serve
For the sauce, cream the butter.
Add powdered sugar, boiling water, flavoring, beaten egg white, and fruit juice; mix until smooth.
Serve the pudding warm with the sauce.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 help the pudding set as it bakes.
- Cracker crumbs
- Absorb the milk and give the pudding body and structure.
- Shredded coconut
- Adds moisture, chewy texture and coconut flavor.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the sauce.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the sauce and helps it stay smooth.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, butter. 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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