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Dessert

Cocoa-nut Jumbles

A buttery, cocoa‑flavored pastry shaped into rings, baked briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Jumbles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Grate a large cocoa‑nut.

  2. Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of sifted flour, and wet it with three beaten eggs and a little rose water.

  3. Add the cocoa‑nut by degrees, so as to form a stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Flour your hands and your paste‑hoard, and divide the dough into equal portions.

  2. Shape each portion into a long roll with your hands, then curl them round and join the ends to form rings.

  3. Grate loaf sugar over the rings, lay them in buttered pans (not so near as to run into each other), and bake them in a quick oven for five to ten minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

635Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78

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

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, helping the dough bake short and crumbly.
Sifted flour
Provides the structure that holds the stiff dough together in its rings.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the jumbles.
Cocoa‑nut (in the method)
Adds moisture and body to the stiff dough, along with its own flavour.

The step that matters

Shape each portion into a long roll with your hands, then curl them round and join the ends to form rings.. The rings must be joined firmly, or they can open up in the oven. Keeping the pieces even in size also helps them bake at the same rate.

“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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