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Dessert

Cocoanut Ice

A sweet coconut candy made by boiling sugar and water, adding coconut and egg whites, then cooling and cutting into bars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cocoanut Ice

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cocoanut Ice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Boil sugar and water until it reaches 236°F (113°C).

  2. Stir in the coconut and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Add the beaten egg whites and cook for a few minutes longer.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture onto a buttered slab and let it cool.

  2. Cut into bars once cold.

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.

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.

  1. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Coconut + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,742 recipes

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

  3. Coconut + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Dissolves in water and sets as the firm, sweet body of the candy.
Egg whites
Whipped foam adds lightness and helps the mixture set into a tender texture.
Desiccated coconut
Provides the chewy texture and coconut flavor throughout the bars.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar and water to 236°F (113°C). Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm once cool. Stopping early leaves a soft, sticky result, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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