Name: Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries and Sea Salt
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 20
Ingredients: ½ cups Coconut Oil (in Solid Form); ⅔ cups Brown Sugar, Packed; ½ teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract; 1 whole Large Egg; ¾ cups Whole Wheat Flour; ½ teaspoons Baking Soda; ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon; 1-¼ teaspoon Sea Salt (such As Maldon), Divided; 1-½ cup Rolled Oats; 3-½ ounces, weight Dark Chocolate, Chopped; ½ cups Dried Tart Cherries; ½ cups Pecans, Chopped (optional)

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 ↓

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.

Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,294 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together537 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Vanilla + oatstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,532 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Wheat + oatstop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together473 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the coconut

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

Blueberryfits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla, egg, wheat, flour, cinnamon, oats. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Oat	1/2 cup dry (40g)	154
Cherry	1 cup (138g)	87
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Pecan	1 half (4g)	20
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Cherries and Sea Salt