Name: Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients: 2/3 of vanilla pudding; 1/2 cake of chocolate; a little milk; optional: grated coconut, chopped pineapple, or strawberries

Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

2/3 of vanilla pudding
1/2 cake of chocolate
a little milk
optional: grated coconut, chopped pineapple, or strawberries

Directions

Flavor the pudding with vanilla.
Remove two-thirds of the pudding and set aside.
Soften, mash, and dissolve the chocolate in a little milk.
In a mold, layer half of the white pudding, then the chocolate mixture, followed by the rest of the white pudding.
Alternatively, use two layers of chocolate with a layer of white in between.
You can also add grated coconut in the center or use chopped pineapple or strawberries as a dressing.

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.

Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,294 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Chocolate + coconuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,107 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,648 recipes

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