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Dessert

Cocoanut Pie

A custard pie with coconut filling topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cocoanut Pie

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 ↓

Cocoanut Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine milk, sugar, butter, corn starch, and egg yolks.

  2. Boil the mixture until thick, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the shredded coconut.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the filling into the baked pie crust.

  2. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the whipped egg whites on top of the pie filling.

  4. Brown the pie in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  5. Add vanilla extract for flavor before serving.

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.

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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Corn + coconuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness to the filling.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets firm when boiled.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the topping and browns in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth filling texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps balance the richness of the eggs.

The step that matters

Boil the filling until thick, stirring constantly. Cornstarch only thickens fully when the mixture reaches a boil, and constant stirring prevents scorching and lumps. Undercooked starch leaves a runny filling that will not hold its shape when sliced.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Coconutthe original
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, corn, egg, vanilla. 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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