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Dessert

Small Cocoa-nut Puddings

A small, baked pudding made with butter, sugar, cocoa-nut, candied citron, lemon, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Small Cocoa-nut Puddings

Why it works: Butter and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 548 recipes. Both carry delta-undecalactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Small Cocoa-nut Puddings

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.

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter and sugar together over low heat until boiling for 2 minutes.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Mix in the cocoa-nut, candied citron, lemon rind, and beaten eggs.

  4. Add the strained lemon juice and combine well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered pattypans or pudding cups.

  2. Sift sugar over the top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Eggs
Set the custard and add structure and richness to the pudding.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the pudding a tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps brown the top of the pudding.
Cocoa-nut
Adds flavour and moisture to the pudding.
Candied citron
Adds sweet, aromatic citrus flavour and chewy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. If the sugar and butter mixture is still hot when the beaten eggs go in, the eggs can scramble instead of blending smoothly, which leaves the pudding with a grainy texture.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

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