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Dessert

Cocoanut Cookies

A sweet cookie made with lard, butter, coconut, molasses, milk, egg yolks, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cookies

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the lard and butter until creamy.

  3. Add the macaroon coconut, molasses, milk, and egg yolks; mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda and flour.

  5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough quite thin on a floured surface.

  2. Cut out cookies using a 3-inch cutter.

  3. Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Lard
Provides fat that makes the cookies tender and short in texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, helping the dough cream and brown.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and moisture to lift the cookies and aid browning.
Egg yolks
Add richness and binding, helping the dough hold together.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and deep colour to the cookies.

The step that matters

Roll out the dough quite thin. Thickness controls spread and bake time; dough rolled too thick stays doughy in the centre while the edges over-brown, so an even thin roll gives evenly baked cookies.

“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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