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Dessert

Cocoa-nut Pudding

A pudding made from grated cocoa nut, sugar, lemon peel, and milk, baked in a pastry-lined tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Cocoa-nut Pudding

Why it works: Cocoa and milk work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 643 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Break the shell of the cocoa nut carefully to keep it whole.

  2. Remove the brown skin and grate the nut.

  3. Mix the grated cocoa nut with the powdered sugar and lemon peel.

  4. Combine the mixture with milk until well blended.

Bake

  1. Line a tin with pastry.

  2. Pour the mixture into the tin.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until not too brown.

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

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

  2. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Cocoa + lemontop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Cocoa nut
Forms the main body of the pudding, giving bulk and a rich, grated texture.
Powdered white sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture taste balanced after baking.
Milk
Moistens the grated nut and binds the mixture so it holds together in the tin.

The step that matters

Bake until not too brown. Sugar and milk proteins brown quickly in the oven, so the pudding can scorch before it sets. Watching the colour keeps it golden and evenly cooked through.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Milletfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, 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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