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Dessert

Cassava Pudding

A custard-like pudding made from milk, cassava, coconut, eggs, butter, and sweetened with sugar and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cassava and coconut work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 33 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk.

  2. Stir in the cassava, coconut, eggs, butter, salt, sugar, and vanilla.

  3. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened like boiled custard.

  4. Pour into a serving dish.

Top and brown

  1. Beat the egg white with the sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the egg white mixture over the pudding and smooth it out.

  3. Brown in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

  1. Serve warm or cold, with jelly.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cassava + coconuttop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Coconut + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that thickens into a custard-like pudding.
Cassava
Thickens the mixture and gives the pudding its body and chewy texture.
Eggs
Set with heat to add structure and richness to the custard.
Egg white
Whipped into a meringue topping that becomes light and browns in the oven.
Shredded coconut
Adds fat, moisture and a distinct coconut flavour to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

The step that matters

Cook the custard over low heat. Stirring over low heat keeps the eggs and starch from scorching or curdling as the mixture thickens. Too much heat can make the custard grainy or cause it to stick to the pan.

“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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