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Dessert

Delmonico Pudding

A custard pudding with coconut, eggs, and a whipped egg white topping.

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 ↓

Delmonico Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Dissolve the cornstarch in a little cold milk.

  3. Beat the eggs and sugar together.

  4. Stir the beaten eggs and sugar into the scalding milk.

  5. Add the shredded coconut.

  6. Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.

Top, bake and serve

  1. Whip the 3 egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add 3 tablespoons of sugar to the whipped egg whites.

  3. Flavor the whipped egg whites with lemon or vanilla extract.

  4. Spread the flavored whipped egg whites over the pudding.

  5. Bake until light brown.

  6. Serve hot or 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 + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  2. Coconut + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the eggs and cornstarch thicken into a custard.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard as they cook; whipped whites form a meringue topping.
Cornstarch
Starch thickens the custard and gives it a smooth, sliceable body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, added gradually, helps stabilize the whipped egg white topping.
Shredded coconut
Adds flavor and a chewy texture to the custard.

The step that matters

Gradually add 3 tablespoons of sugar to the whipped egg whites.. Adding sugar slowly lets it dissolve and strengthen the foam, so the whites stay stiff and glossy instead of weeping or collapsing once spread and baked.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, lemon. 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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