Name: Cocoa-nut Biscuits or Cakes
Ingredients: 10 oz. sifted sugar (1 ¼ cups); 3 eggs; 6 oz. grated cocoa-nut (1 ¾ cups)

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 ↓

Cocoa-nut Biscuits or Cakes

Ingredients

10 oz. sifted sugar (1 ¼ cups)
3 eggs
6 oz. grated cocoa-nut (1 ¾ cups)

Directions

Whisk the eggs until very light.
Gradually add the sugar while continuing to whisk.
Stir in the grated cocoa-nut.
Form a tablespoonful of the mixture into a pyramid shape using your hands.
Place on a baking sheet.

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.

Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + cocoatop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together956 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Egg + cocoatop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together582 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).