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Dessert

Cocoanut Caramels

A chewy caramel made from coconut, glucose, sugar, egg whites, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coconut milk

  1. Boil shredded coconut in water until reduced to about 3 quarts.

  2. Allow to cool, then strain through a cloth into a crock.

  3. Spread out the shredded coconut to dry.

Cook the caramel

  1. In a clean kettle, boil the coconut milk.

  2. Add glucose and sugar, stirring until dissolved.

  3. Boil to 240°F (115°C) and then cool to 140°F (60°C).

Finish and set

  1. Chop the dried coconut finely.

  2. Whisk egg whites to a froth.

  3. When the thermometer reaches 140°F, paddle the mixture until it turns white.

  4. Add the beaten egg whites, then the chopped coconut and vanilla.

  5. Transfer to a prepared marble slab or lightly oiled paper.

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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Shredded coconut
Supplies the coconut milk and chopped coconut pieces that give the caramel its flavour and chew.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallisation, keeping the caramel smooth and less grainy.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the body of the caramel when boiled.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they add air and lighten the texture of the mixture.

The step that matters

Boil to 240°F (115°C) and then cool to 140°F (60°C). Sugar concentration at the boiling point sets the final firmness of the caramel. Cooling to 140°F before paddling keeps the mixture from setting too hard while it is worked and aerated.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla. 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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