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Orange Cocoanut Filling

A sweet orange and coconut filling thickened with corn starch and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and orange work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 586 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Orange Cocoanut Filling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the orange base

  1. Put the grated rind, half an orange, and the juice of a whole orange in a cup.

  2. Add a tablespoonful of lemon juice.

  3. Fill the cup with water.

Thicken

  1. Add one tablespoonful of corn starch mixed with a little water.

  2. Cook until it thickens over hot water.

Finish the filling

  1. Stir in the yolk of one egg beaten with two heaping tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of butter.

  2. Add a cup of grated coconut.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

595Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
111 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

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

  2. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

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

  3. Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,696 recipes

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

Orange and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,696 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

Corn starch
Swells with heat and thickens the liquid into a spreadable filling.
Egg
The yolk thickens the filling slightly and adds richness and colour.
Orange
Its juice and rind add acidity and fresh citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Cooking until it thickens. Corn starch only thickens fully once it is heated and stirred, and it can clump if it is added to hot liquid without being mixed in well first. Cook gently over hot water and keep stirring so the starch thickens evenly and the filling sets smooth.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg. 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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