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Dessert

Cocoanut Cream Pie

A coconut custard pie topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 Cream 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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine egg yolks, cream, cornstarch, granulated sugar, grated coconut, melted butter, milk, vanilla extract, and salt.

  3. Line two pie plates with puff pastry and fill with the mixture.

  4. Bake the pies until set.

Top and brown

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until light and fluffy, then gradually add powdered sugar.

  2. Spread the meringue over the baked pies and return to the oven to brown.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  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 filling as they set and add richness.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, soft texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling so it sets firmly when baked.
Grated coconut
Provides coconut flavor and a chewy texture in the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that forms the light meringue topping.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites. Egg whites must be beaten until light and fluffy before sugar is added gradually, so they form a stable foam that holds its shape and browns well in the oven.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, sugar, butter, milk, 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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