Name: Baked Oocoanut Pudding. with Orange Syrup.
Ingredients: 1 pound of coconut (or less if using desiccated coconut); 1 quart of bread crumbs; 1 quart of milk; 2 ounces of butter; 2 ounces of sugar; 1 lemon or sour orange; 4 egg yolks; 6 egg whites; 6 ounces of granulated sugar

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Oocoanut Pudding. with Orange Syrup.

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the pudding base

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, milk, butter, sugar, lemon juice, and egg yolks.
Stir in half of the coconut and divide the mixture into two buttered pans.

Make the meringue topping

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy, then gradually add the granulated sugar.
Fold the remaining coconut into the egg white mixture.
Spread the coconut meringue over the puddings.

Bake and serve

Bake slowly with the oven doors open until set.
Cut into squares or diamond shapes and serve with orange syrup.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 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).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,467 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites: Whipped with sugar to form a meringue that gives the topping its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks: Enrich the custard base and help it set into a tender, sliceable pudding.
Bread crumbs: Soak up the milk and give the pudding body and a soft, moist crumb.
Coconut: Adds flavour and chewiness to both the pudding and the meringue topping.
Milk: Provides the liquid that hydrates the bread crumbs and sets with the eggs.

The step that matters

Bake slowly with the oven doors open until set. Gentle, low heat lets the custard set evenly without curdling or drying out, while the meringue cooks through without over-browning.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Bananafits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, bread, milk, butter, sugar, 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.

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Bread Pudding153 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

Lemon Sherbet103 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Baked Oocoanut Pudding. with Orange Syrup.