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Cocoanut Caramels

Coconut caramels made by adding grated coconut to a vanilla caramel mixture at the hard ball stage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook according to the Vanilla No. 1 recipe, adding the grated coconuts when the mixture reaches the hard ball stage.

  2. If using Vanilla No. 2, add the grated coconuts at the beginning with the sugar and cream, using a little more cream of tartar than for Vanilla.

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

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

  3. 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

Grated coconuts
Provide the main flavour and chewy texture of the caramel.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when cooked, the caramel base that sets the candy.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the texture of the caramel.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent sugar crystallisation for a smoother candy.

The step that matters

Adding the grated coconuts at the right stage. Coconut added too early or too late changes the texture; adding at the hard ball stage follows the Vanilla No. 1 method, while Vanilla No. 2 adds it at the start with extra cream of tartar.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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