Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cocoanut Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Grate the cocoanut finely.
Shape and bake
In a bowl, combine the grated cocoanut, sugar, and beaten egg white.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto flat, buttered baking sheets.
Bake slowly until set.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cocoanut
- Forms the bulk of the cake and provides its chewy texture and coconut flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown and firm up as they bake.
- Egg white
- Binds the grated coconut together so the spoonfuls hold their shape.
The step that matters
Bake slowly until set. Low oven heat dries the cakes gently so they set and firm without scorching or browning too quickly on the outside. Baking too hot can burn the sugar before the centers have set.
“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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