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Dessert

Mocha Pudding

A mocha pudding made from eggs, sugar, flour, whipped sweetened coffee, and butter icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mocha Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and add the sugar.

  2. Whisk over a pan of hot water until the sugar melts, then whisk until cold.

  3. Sift in the flour and mix well.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour into a greased timbale mold and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes until set and pale brown.

  2. Turn out and let cool.

  3. Cover with coffee water icing and let it set.

  4. Decorate with coffee-flavored butter icing and fill the center with cream passed through a rose forcer.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whisked with sugar to trap air, giving the pudding its light, sponge-like structure.
Castor sugar
Dissolves into the eggs for sweetness and helps the batter hold its airy texture.
Sifted flour
Provides the starch that sets during baking and gives the pudding its body.
Whipped sweetened coffee
Adds coffee flavour and moisture to the mixture, giving the mocha character.

The step that matters

Whisking the eggs and sugar over hot water. Warming the eggs and sugar together dissolves the sugar and lets the mixture whip to a stable foam. Whisking until cold, then folding in the flour gently, keeps the air from collapsing, so the pudding rises and bakes light rather than dense.

“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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