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Dessert

Cocoanut Jumbles

A sweet, coconut-flavored pastry made with butter, flour, eggs, and spices, baked into ring-shaped jumbles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cocoanut Jumbles

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until well combined.

  3. Add the grated coconut and eggs to the mixture to form a stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Take portions of the dough and roll them into long, thin rolls.

  2. Cut the rolls into equal lengths and curl them into rings.

  3. Place the rings on a buttered baking sheet.

  4. Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.

  5. Sprinkle additional powdered sugar over the baked jumbles.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Coconut + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Coconut + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour particles and keeping the dough short.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the stiff dough together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the jumbles.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, chew and a distinct coconut flavour to the dough.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and dissolves readily into the butter for a fine texture.

The step that matters

Baking time for the rings. The rings bake for only 5 minutes at high heat, and the thin shapes can brown or dry out quickly, so watch them closely while they bake.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, butter, flour, egg, sugar, rose, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, butter, flour, egg, sugar, rose, nutmeg. 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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