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Dessert

Orange Pudding

A baked coconut and orange pudding made with eggs, milk, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Orange Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine grated coconut, breadcrumbs, sugar, and butter.

  3. Boil the milk and pour it over the mixture, allowing it to soak briefly.

  4. Grate the orange rind and add the juice along with the beaten egg yolks; mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pie dish and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites with some sugar until stiff.

  2. Spread the stiff egg whites over the top before serving.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  3. Coconut + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  5. Orange + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks enrich and help set the custard, while whipped whites add airy structure to the topping.
Grated coconut
Provides moisture, body and the main coconut flavour of the pudding.
Milk
Softens the coconut and breadcrumbs and adds moisture to the base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and helps the egg whites hold their stiff peaks.
Orange
Zest adds aroma and juice adds a bright acidity that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Whites trap air as their proteins unfold, so they must be beaten until they hold firm peaks. Under-beaten whites will slump on the pudding, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Bananafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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