Skip to main content
Bread

Cocoanut Pie

A sweet pie made with grated coconut, lemon juice, sugar, water or coconut milk, eggs, and baked in a standard pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Cocoanut Pie

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cocoanut Pie

two pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Grate a large coconut.

  2. Squeeze the juice of one lemon.

  3. Add 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water or coconut milk, and 4 eggs.

  4. Bake pie crust as for any pie.

  5. Cream sugar and egg yolks.

  6. Add the other ingredients.

  7. Add beaten egg whites last.

  8. The mixture yields enough for two pies.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

139Calories
7 gProtein
5 gFat
17 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0
Pienot in our table0

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

By Kaufman, Nettie M. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Set the filling and add richness, with the whites adding lift when beaten.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the yolks cream smoothly.
Coconut (in the method)
Provides the main flavor and body of the filling.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the filling.

The step that matters

Add beaten egg whites last. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives the pie lightness. Adding them last and folding gently keeps that air from collapsing, so the filling stays light rather than dense.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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.

More coconut pie recipes

Filling 5 See all 212 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes