Why it works: Wine and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Cocoanut Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the egg whites and grated coconut to the butter mixture, alternating between the two.
Stir in the wine, brandy, and rose water until well combined.
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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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together560 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,127 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to give the pudding a rich, smooth, fat-based body.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter for sweetness and a smooth base texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff peaks, they add lightness and airy structure to the mixture.
- Grated coconut
- Folded into the batter to add moisture, flavour and body.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Adding the whites gradually and alternating with the coconut keeps the stiff foam from deflating, so the pudding stays light instead of dense.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, wine, brandy, rose):
- Vanillafits better
- Currantfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, wine, brandy, rose. 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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