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Dessert

Cocoanut Pound Cake

A dense cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, flour, coconut, rose water, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cocoanut Pound Cake

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. Beat the butter and sugar until very light.

  2. Stir in the rose-water.

  3. Whisk the eggs until very thick, then gradually stir them in.

  4. Add the flour in two parts, mixing well after each addition.

  5. Fold in the grated coconut.

Bake

  1. Butter and line your pan with parchment paper.

  2. Pour in the batter and smooth it over evenly with a knife.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Rose + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Whisking them thick traps air, which gives the cake lift and a light crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it holds air and adds richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Creaming with butter helps aerate the batter and adds sweetness and tenderness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets in the oven.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, flavor and a slightly chewy texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Whisk the eggs until very thick, then add them gradually. Whisked eggs carry air that helps the cake rise. Adding them gradually keeps the emulsified butter and sugar from curdling, so the batter stays smooth and light.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

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