Name: Cocoanut Drop Cakes
Ingredients: 4 cups powdered sugar; Whites of 16 eggs; 4 cups grated coconut; 1½ cups flour

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Cocoanut Drop Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

4 cups powdered sugar
Whites of 16 eggs
4 cups grated coconut
1½ cups flour

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 240°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sugar mixture

Boil the sugar to the soft ball stage (240°F).
Granulate the sugar by rubbing it against the sides of the pan.
Stir in the grated coconut.

Shape the dough

Pour the mixture onto a clean marble slab.
Work in the flour.
Mould into shapes as desired.

Bake

Place loosely on greased pans.
Bake in a cool oven (300°F) 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.

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Coconut + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,315 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + coconuttop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,742 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Powdered sugar: Sweetens the cakes and, once boiled and rubbed, forms the granular structure of the drops.
Egg whites: Add structure and help the cakes set as they bake.
Grated coconut: Adds moisture, chew and coconut flavour to the drops.
Flour: Gives the mixture body so the drops hold their shape.

The step that matters

Boil the sugar to the soft ball stage (240°F). The sugar's final boiling temperature sets how much water remains in the syrup. Too little boiling leaves the drops soft and sticky, while too much makes them hard and dry once the sugar cools and sets.