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Dessert

Cocoa Nut Pudding

A pudding made from grated cocoa nut, milk, sugar, eggs, cornstarch, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cocoa Nut Pudding

Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Cocoa Nut Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cocoa nut

  1. Remove the dark rind from the cocoa nut and grate it very finely.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine the grated cocoa nut, sugar, and milk.

  2. Heat the mixture over medium heat until warm.

  3. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and cornstarch together.

  4. Gradually add the warm cocoa mixture to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  5. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened.

  6. Stir in the vanilla extract and pour into a serving dish.

Serve

  1. Let it cool 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.

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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 as they cook, thickening the pudding and giving it structure.
Cornstarch
Thickens the warm milk mixture so the pudding becomes smooth and sliceable.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the pudding and provides moisture and richness.
Cocoa nut
Supplies the main flavor and body of the pudding through its grated flesh.

The step that matters

Gradually add the warm cocoa mixture to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.. Adding hot liquid to eggs too quickly can scramble them. Stirring constantly and adding slowly gently raises the egg temperature so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Cocoathe original
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

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