Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cocoa Nut Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine the crushed sugar and water to make a syrup. Bring to a boil.
Add the ground cocoa nut to the boiling syrup and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
Finish and bake
Remove from heat and let it cool completely.
Once cooled, beat in the eggs until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cocoa + sugartop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together956 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cocoa + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together582 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ground cocoa nut
- Forms the body of the pudding and gives it its main flavor and texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and set when baked, giving the pudding structure.
- Crushed sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and, dissolved into syrup, helps keep it moist.
The step that matters
Cooking the cocoa nut in the syrup. Stirring keeps the ground nut from sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pan, which would give a burnt taste. Cooling completely before adding the eggs prevents the hot mixture from scrambling them.
Swap the cocoa
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Pecansfits better
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Cocoathe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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