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Dessert

Cocoanut Cheese Cake

A coconut-based cheesecake made with curd, shredded coconut, sugar, cream, egg yolks, and rose extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cheese Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Mix together the curd, shredded coconut, sugar, cream, and egg yolks.

  2. Place the mixture in a saucepan over low heat and cook until thick.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

  4. Once cool, stir in the rose extract.

Bake

  1. Bake in patty pans lined with pastry for 10 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Coconut + rosetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Coconut + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,223 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Coconut + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Curd
Provides the rich, tangy base that the filling is built on.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture as it cooks and add richness and structure to the filling.
Cream
Adds fat for a smooth, soft texture in the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the filling's texture.
Shredded coconut
Adds chewy texture and coconut flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook until thick over low heat. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, but high heat can curdle them into a grainy texture. Low heat and constant attention help the filling set smoothly before cooling.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg, 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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