Why it works: Butter and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cocoanut Jumbles
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the grated coconut.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly golden.
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.
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.
-
Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + coconuttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,315 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and, creamed with butter, helps give it a light, tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it traps air that lightens the dough.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and moisture as they are beaten in.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the jumbles together as they bake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lift and spread the dough and aid browning.
- Grated coconut
- Adds chewy texture and a coconut flavour throughout the cookies.
The step that matters
Mixing in the dry ingredients. Mixing the flour in only until just combined keeps the dough tender. Overmixing develops gluten, which makes the jumbles tough and dense.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour. 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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.