Name: Cocoanut Pudding
Ingredients: 1 coconut, grated fine; 6 egg whites; ½ pound white sugar; ½ pound butter; juice of 3 lemons, strained; milk from the coconut (if needed)

Why it works: Butter and milk 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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

In a bowl, mix the grated coconut, egg whites, sugar, butter, and lemon juice.
If the mixture is too thick, add the milk from the coconut until desired consistency.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a baked pastry shell.
Bake for a few minutes until set.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,648 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Coconut + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,233 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites: Provide structure, helping the filling set into a firm custard when baked.
Butter: Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the coconut and sugar.
Grated coconut: Supplies the main flavour and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Adding coconut milk only if too thick. Egg whites set the filling when heated, so too much liquid can keep it from firming. Add milk gradually and check the consistency before baking.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, egg, sugar, butter, milk):

Vanillafits better
Bananafits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, egg, sugar, butter, milk. 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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Cocoanut Pudding