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Dessert

CocoANUT Sponge Pudding

A baked coconut sponge pudding made with stale sponge cake crumbs, milk, coconut, eggs, sugar, rose water, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,648 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

CocoANUT Sponge Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Heat the milk to boiling.

  2. Stir in the sponge cake crumbs and beat into a soft batter.

  3. When nearly cold, add the beaten egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, rose water, and coconut, adding the wine last.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish.

  2. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until firm in the center and nicely browned.

  3. Serve cold, with white sugar sifted over the top.

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. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  2. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  3. Rose + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together162 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Coconut + rosetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together185 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

Sponge-cake crumbs
Provide the bulk and soft body that the batter sets around.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and carries the crumbs into a smooth batter.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set firm and smooth.
Egg whites
Add lift and airiness, and help the pudding set in the oven.
White sugar
Sweetens the pudding and aids browning on the surface.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, chew and a distinct coconut flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten eggs when nearly cold. If the milk and crumb mixture is still hot, the egg proteins can scramble or curdle instead of blending smoothly. Letting it cool slightly first keeps the batter smooth so it sets evenly in the oven.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, rose, white wine):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, rose, white wine. 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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