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Dessert

Cocoanut Pie

A sweet pie with coconut, milk, sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch filling baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cocoanut Pie

Why it works: Coconut and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,648 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cocoanut Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Boil the coconut in the milk for a few minutes.

  2. In a bowl, mix the sugar, egg yolks, and cornstarch.

  3. Combine the coconut mixture with the egg mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the filling into a pre-baked pie crust.

  2. Frost the pie and bake for a few more minutes until set.

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 + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Coconut + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Shredded coconut
Adds chewy texture and coconut flavor to the filling.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the coconut cooks in and forms the custard base.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the richness of the egg yolks.
Egg yolks
Thicken and set as they cook, giving the filling a custard-like body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid so the filling holds its shape when sliced.
Pie crust
Holds the filling in shape while it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Egg yolks and cornstarch thicken only when heated enough, so the filling sets as it cools. Underbaking leaves it runny and wet, while overbaking can make the eggs weep or turn grainy.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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.

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