Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Cocoanut Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
In a bowl, combine scalded milk, sugar, egg yolks, and corn starch dissolved in a little milk.
Cook the mixture in boiling milk, then stir in the soaked grated coconut.
Pour the filling into the lower crust only pie crust and bake.
Top and brown
Beat the egg whites until frothy, then mix in 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Spread the egg white mixture over the baked pie and return to the oven until nicely browned.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness to the filling.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk mixture so the filling sets as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a meringue that forms a light topping and browns in the oven.
- Grated cocoanut
- Adds chewy texture and coconut flavor to the filling.
The step that matters
Cook the mixture in boiling milk. Cornstarch and egg yolks must be heated enough to thicken the custard. Undercooked starch leaves the filling thin, while overheating can make the yolks curdle or turn grainy.
“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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