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Dessert

Cocoanut Meringues, or Drops

A light coconut-flavored meringue shaped into small drops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cocoanut Meringues, or Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the meringue

  1. In a basin, whisk powdered sugar with egg whites over gentle heat until lukewarm.

  2. Remove from heat and continue whisking until stiff.

Shape and bake

  1. Using a piping bag, dress the mixture on paper in round shapes, about the size of a macaroon. Sprinkle fine-chopped coconut over the meringues.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly colored.

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

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

  2. Sugar + cocoatop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together956 recipes

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

  3. Egg + cocoatop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and dissolves into the egg whites to help stabilize the foam.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the meringues their light, airy structure.
Fine-chopped cocoa-nut
Adds flavor and a toasty surface as the meringues bake.

The step that matters

Whisking until stiff after the heat. Whisking the warm egg white and sugar mixture until stiff builds the foam that holds the meringue's shape. Under-whisked foam collapses and spreads during baking.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. 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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