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Dessert

Cocoanut Tapioca Pudding

A baked tapioca pudding made with milk, egg yolks, sugar and coconut, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cocoanut Tapioca Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca overnight in cold water.

  2. Drain the water and stir the tapioca into the boiling milk in a double boiler.

  3. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

Make the pudding

  1. Add the beaten egg yolks, sugar, and chopped coconut; if using fresh coconut, boil for another 10 minutes.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.

Top and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, add a little sugar, and spread over the pudding.

  2. Sift a little coconut on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until slightly browned.

  4. Serve cold.

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

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

  2. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Tapioca
Swells in hot milk and thickens the pudding to a soft, spoonable set.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help thicken it for a smooth, rich texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they form a light topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the meringue topping stay stable and brown.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the tapioca absorbs and cooks into a creamy base.

The step that matters

Boil the tapioca in the milk. Tapioca must be fully hydrated and cooked through in the hot milk, or the pudding will taste grainy or stay firm. Soaking beforehand helps it cook evenly and thicken properly.

“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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